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Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People
What colors do you see in nature - the green of a fern, the brown of a desert, the gray of a lifeless tree? Look closer. You'll find more than meets the eye. Is that a white flower, or a star that fell in the forest? Is that an orange sunset, or a piece of fruit that's ripe for eating? Is that a blue sky, or the slate on which a bird writes? In thirteen memorable poems, Jane Yolen takes you on a whimsical journey through Mother Nature's glorious landscape. Using Jason Stemple's dazzling photographs as a backdrop, Ms. Yolen paints her own vivid pictures that are both real and imagined.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Jane Yolen
972 books3,237 followersJane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
March 12, 2019
I feel like I should love it, as it hits at least three of my interests, but there just wasn't any 'magic' or 'oomph' in it. Still, educators will probably get ideas from it, if they can get it from their libraries.
July 25, 2018
Excellent short poems about colors for kids and adults. I liked very much that the first one was Green (“Poems are green”) and the next one was Gray:
“...nothing is grayer
Than a dead old tree,
Dim reminder of what green
Used to be.”
“...nothing is grayer
Than a dead old tree,
Dim reminder of what green
Used to be.”
July 8, 2013
Jane Yolen uses colors to inspire poems and haiku's for children. Pictures from her son are used in the book. She also names other colors which are the same within her poems. For example; white and ivory, blue, sapphire, and azure, and red and crimson, ruby, and cherry.
July 9, 2010
Thirteen simple color poems accompanied by photographs of that color in nature. Besides the poems, the author has included a quote or quote fragment that mentions the color as well as names of a number of different shades of that color.
October 28, 2019
Summary:
This book contains a compilation of poems that pertain to different colors being presented in nature. The poem written on each page uses a specific color in a way that expresses wildlife, living things, and varying aspects of nature throughout the world. The poems include types of poems that rhyme, are haikus, and free verse.
Review:
I absolutely love this book because it integrates all different aspects of poetry while bringing in the wonderful aspect of nature. Although the poems are short, they are effective, wonderful, and fun to read. After I read this book once, I had to read it again and again because I captured a different perspective and noticed new features each time I read it.
Book Connection:
I think this book would be paired well with another children's poetry book, "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" by Allie Esiri. "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" encompasses similar concepts of nature written in "Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People," as it celebrates nature and expresses the world in a poetic and fun way. "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" includes odes and poems from various authors that give you a great sense of poetry in regards to nature.
Quote:
I think one of the best poems within this book is about the color orange. The poem is, "Orange: I want to take a bite out of the sunset sky, letting the orange juices run down my chin, spitting out the pulp onto the rocks below." The vivid imagery portrayed in this poem, as well as the use of nature, makes me as the reader feel something special with all of my senses.
This book contains a compilation of poems that pertain to different colors being presented in nature. The poem written on each page uses a specific color in a way that expresses wildlife, living things, and varying aspects of nature throughout the world. The poems include types of poems that rhyme, are haikus, and free verse.
Review:
I absolutely love this book because it integrates all different aspects of poetry while bringing in the wonderful aspect of nature. Although the poems are short, they are effective, wonderful, and fun to read. After I read this book once, I had to read it again and again because I captured a different perspective and noticed new features each time I read it.
Book Connection:
I think this book would be paired well with another children's poetry book, "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" by Allie Esiri. "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" encompasses similar concepts of nature written in "Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People," as it celebrates nature and expresses the world in a poetic and fun way. "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" includes odes and poems from various authors that give you a great sense of poetry in regards to nature.
Quote:
I think one of the best poems within this book is about the color orange. The poem is, "Orange: I want to take a bite out of the sunset sky, letting the orange juices run down my chin, spitting out the pulp onto the rocks below." The vivid imagery portrayed in this poem, as well as the use of nature, makes me as the reader feel something special with all of my senses.
April 10, 2019
I planned on reading a few of the pages, because it was a bit long for the toddlers. I read a few of the poems, but they weren't really interested in that. I started asking them "What color is this?" and they loved saying the colors out loud! Then I would read the words on the next page which listed other names for that color (red can also be called rouge, etc). Some of the kids really enjoyed guessing the colors, so I rated it four stars because at least that part was fun for them and they got to learn new words.
August 31, 2020
I liked the photos of nature as the illustrations and also the various terms used for a color word that were artfully arranged around the photos. For example for brown: coffee, walnut, tan, rust, umber, mahogany. The poetry just didn’t resonate with me.
April 1, 2019
Love the pictures, not so much the poems.
December 4, 2019
Great poems for younger students relating to colors.
February 11, 2019
This book is very good to use for rhyming. It uses great technique when coming to helping with rhyming. It also gives a lot of room to work with colors. It's good for practicing colors and what they relate to. This books has lots of pictures for help and I think that's even better.
February 22, 2014
Mother and son pair up to bring us yet another poetry collection from their nature poems series. Color Me a Rhyme is a “visual feast” that contains a variety of rhyming, non-rhyming, and haiku poems by Jane Yolen and stunning nature photographs by Jason Stemple.
The book uses a two page spread for each color word: green, gray, purple, orange, white, pink, black, yellow, red, brown, and blue. Each set of pages contains the color poem, a background photo, and a photograph or two taken of things found in nature that are that color. The photograph is bordered by color words in different hues. The last poem of the book is a rainbow poem that melds together all of the colors previously mentioned in the book.
Poetry is not one of my favorite genres… in fact, it is close to one of my least favorite genres. I do not enjoy having to discover the hidden meanings within poetry due to the metaphorical language. It has never been something I’ve been good at, therefore, I try to avoid it as much as possible. While the photographs are gorgeous and the poems are wonderfully written, I had a hard time staying interested as I read this book. It had nothing to do with the book itself… just a personal preference I guess. One poem in the book did catch my attention: Orange/ I want to take a bite/ out of that sunset sky,/ letting the orange juices/ run down my chin,/ spitting out the pulp/ onto the rocks below. I think it held my interest because of the imagery it provoked in me… I was able to paint a picture in my mind and taste the orange juices as I thought about the sunset. As a teacher, this book would be a great mentor text when teaching upper elementary students and even middle school students poetry. I like how in the back of the book, Jane Yolen invites students to write color poems of their own.
The book uses a two page spread for each color word: green, gray, purple, orange, white, pink, black, yellow, red, brown, and blue. Each set of pages contains the color poem, a background photo, and a photograph or two taken of things found in nature that are that color. The photograph is bordered by color words in different hues. The last poem of the book is a rainbow poem that melds together all of the colors previously mentioned in the book.
Poetry is not one of my favorite genres… in fact, it is close to one of my least favorite genres. I do not enjoy having to discover the hidden meanings within poetry due to the metaphorical language. It has never been something I’ve been good at, therefore, I try to avoid it as much as possible. While the photographs are gorgeous and the poems are wonderfully written, I had a hard time staying interested as I read this book. It had nothing to do with the book itself… just a personal preference I guess. One poem in the book did catch my attention: Orange/ I want to take a bite/ out of that sunset sky,/ letting the orange juices/ run down my chin,/ spitting out the pulp/ onto the rocks below. I think it held my interest because of the imagery it provoked in me… I was able to paint a picture in my mind and taste the orange juices as I thought about the sunset. As a teacher, this book would be a great mentor text when teaching upper elementary students and even middle school students poetry. I like how in the back of the book, Jane Yolen invites students to write color poems of their own.
April 19, 2012
Jane Yolen and her son, Jason Stemple team up in this 2000 collection of poems dedicated to the colors found in nature. The photographs are vivid and so is the verse.
Stemple's photographs of desert landscapes, flowers in bloom--even the back of an aligator--are a lesson in visual awareness that might invite younger photography enthusiasts to try their hand at perspective. A poem about chewing up sunshine and spitting the pulp on the rocks below is accompanied by a photo of some strange orange moss growing on a rock bed.
Even a master writer like Jane cannot rhyme purple, and instead she proclaims every flower a poem and absolves herself of the need to create some forced rhyme or metaphor that could do justice to these wonders of nature.
Each photo is framed in other variants of the poem's anchor color encouraging younger readers to consider the different shades of familiar colors that might lend to their increasing sense of description when trying their own hands at "color" poems.
As a side note, some of Jane's poems have some real depth to them. An example of this might be her poem for the color gray (anchored by Stemple's photograph of gray, weathered wood):
Gray trout in the water,
Gray clouds in the skies
Are graceful memories
and gradual lies.
But nothing is grayer
Than an old dead tree,
Dim reminder of what green
Used to be.
So while the subtitle of the book reads, "Nature Poems for Young People," the collection would work very nicely in writer workshops with older students.
Stemple's photographs of desert landscapes, flowers in bloom--even the back of an aligator--are a lesson in visual awareness that might invite younger photography enthusiasts to try their hand at perspective. A poem about chewing up sunshine and spitting the pulp on the rocks below is accompanied by a photo of some strange orange moss growing on a rock bed.
Even a master writer like Jane cannot rhyme purple, and instead she proclaims every flower a poem and absolves herself of the need to create some forced rhyme or metaphor that could do justice to these wonders of nature.
Each photo is framed in other variants of the poem's anchor color encouraging younger readers to consider the different shades of familiar colors that might lend to their increasing sense of description when trying their own hands at "color" poems.
As a side note, some of Jane's poems have some real depth to them. An example of this might be her poem for the color gray (anchored by Stemple's photograph of gray, weathered wood):
Gray trout in the water,
Gray clouds in the skies
Are graceful memories
and gradual lies.
But nothing is grayer
Than an old dead tree,
Dim reminder of what green
Used to be.
So while the subtitle of the book reads, "Nature Poems for Young People," the collection would work very nicely in writer workshops with older students.
March 15, 2010
Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People by Jane Yolen is a themed book of nature poems that is intended for readers in grades four through six. I gave it five stars. “All the colors of the world.” Yolen’s nature poems are poetic imagery at its best, allowing the reader to imagine and visualize nature as colors, deeply enriching colors that can convey and evoke different emotions. Each poem defines a color in nature through the use of descriptive words, definable actions, and strong emotion words. Each poem dedicates itself to its color and is accompanied by four distinct features: text printed in the given color, beautiful photographs of nature isolating the color, a short line of poetry from another author also celebrating the color, and a multitude of color names of differing shades of the color. Backdrops of sunsets, skylines, deserts, mountains, and forests unveil all the different environments of Earth. The Author’s Note at the beginning of this book introduces the reader to the awe in isolating colors in nature and an encouragement for readers to use the long list of colors given to write additional poems about colors in nature. This book of nature poems allows the reader to slow down, take a look around nature, and enjoy the wonder and amazing features that the Earth has to offer us.
February 25, 2015
Age range: 3-9
I loved this one because the author described the color of nature very well. Also, I like that all pictures in the book were taken from the nature like flowers, rocks, leaves, and sand. I like the illustrations and I like that each page of the poem was colored with the same color that the author talked about. I really like that all pictures were matched up with each poem; for example, one image showed a type of flower in star shape and the author wrote “ A star fell from the sky one night and landed in the forest, white.” Something interesting I found that the author put a quote about each color, such as “ where the gray trout lies asleep.” By James Hogg. By doing that children will be able to learn about quotation. I also like in the end how the author talked about the rainbow that has all colors. I like that the author put several words around the each image and each word represent thing that have the same color that author wrote about. For example, in Brown color page the word that the author put around the image are coffee and tan. This book has good vocabulary like “ scarlet, vermilion, and mahogany.” The pictures showed every detail like an old tree, I could see the small cracks on it .
I loved this one because the author described the color of nature very well. Also, I like that all pictures in the book were taken from the nature like flowers, rocks, leaves, and sand. I like the illustrations and I like that each page of the poem was colored with the same color that the author talked about. I really like that all pictures were matched up with each poem; for example, one image showed a type of flower in star shape and the author wrote “ A star fell from the sky one night and landed in the forest, white.” Something interesting I found that the author put a quote about each color, such as “ where the gray trout lies asleep.” By James Hogg. By doing that children will be able to learn about quotation. I also like in the end how the author talked about the rainbow that has all colors. I like that the author put several words around the each image and each word represent thing that have the same color that author wrote about. For example, in Brown color page the word that the author put around the image are coffee and tan. This book has good vocabulary like “ scarlet, vermilion, and mahogany.” The pictures showed every detail like an old tree, I could see the small cracks on it .
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December 7, 2016This book highlights the colors in nature; each color gets a poem and love from the author. You will find different elements of poetry and types of poems in this inviting book. The pictures will take you from your seat into the bright skies, dark forests, and colorful world.
This collection of poems is an interesting and intriguing introduction into poetry. I could see this being used in a classroom to keep students engaged and open minded about poetry. This book will make any reader want to go outside and find colors in nature!
I would pair this book with "Count Me a Rhyme : Animal Poems by the Numbers" to give students another way to think about poetry. There are so many things around us that we can write about and poetry is a good place to start.
I would use this as a mentor text to help students think about poetry, be inspired by the descriptive words she uses, and get students to look more closely at types of poems. They will hopefully realize that they can write a poem about anything!
This collection of poems is an interesting and intriguing introduction into poetry. I could see this being used in a classroom to keep students engaged and open minded about poetry. This book will make any reader want to go outside and find colors in nature!
I would pair this book with "Count Me a Rhyme : Animal Poems by the Numbers" to give students another way to think about poetry. There are so many things around us that we can write about and poetry is a good place to start.
I would use this as a mentor text to help students think about poetry, be inspired by the descriptive words she uses, and get students to look more closely at types of poems. They will hopefully realize that they can write a poem about anything!
February 20, 2015
Color Me a Rhyme is a very well written collection of poems about the world around us in nature. Jane Yolan uses real photographs from around the country to write poetry about the colors around us. She uses various poetry forms throughout the book and does an excellent job in immersing her readers into each color. She encourages others to write poems about colors around us as well and adds "extra" words written in various fonts and sizes around the photographs to each to allow for deeper understanding. There is also a quote about each color written by other famous authors on each page. This book of poems could be used in digging deeper into the world of color. I think it would be most suitable for older children, perhaps in grades 3-5. Children could, as Yolan intended, choose one of the abstract color words and write a poem of their own.
March 22, 2013
Color me a Rhyme is a beautiful book filled with gorgeous images and creative poems that use descriptive language to define the various colors found in nature. There are quotes and multiple different words to express each color. It is for children ranging from nine to twelve years old. It is a book of poetry. Some poems are short haikus as well as longer descriptive poems. This book will enhance ones love for the beauty of nature. It could also reinforce the power of being able to use descriptive language. Children will be able to lean more about their favorite colors.
January 16, 2017
This book was interesting, and the pictures used with each color were very striking and beautiful. But there seemed to be little depth to the poems. The book is best suited to children, and especially to those who wish to create poems of their own, as the book encourages you to do so by providing several words that you might use.
As a children's book, this is a great introduction to poems, the simplicity of them, and perhaps a good prompt to get them writing their own.
As a children's book, this is a great introduction to poems, the simplicity of them, and perhaps a good prompt to get them writing their own.
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February 25, 2014Color me a Rhyme is a beautiful book with pretty pictures and poems that use words to define the all the colors found in nature. It us use words and quotes to express the colors. Some poems are haikus as well as longer are longer and more descriptive. I liked this book because children can explore their favorite colors more deeply.
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March 6, 2009I love the idea of doing poems based on colors found in nature. My favorite was "Orange," which described a sunset. I liked some and didn't like others, but enjoyed the pictures and that on each page she listed synonyms for each color.
May 1, 2010
I really enjoyed the idea behind this book. The author had a photagrapher take pictures of specific colors in nature, an then she wrote poems about those pictures. The poems are thoughtful and creative, and the photography is excellent.
February 25, 2014
Color me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen. Uses poetry to describe nature. Lots of colors, some short and long passages throughout book. How colors reflect nature is shown. This poetry book is good for 3rd to 6th grade to understand poetry.
May 6, 2008
lovely color, nature poetry book. just lovely.
September 28, 2011
This is a good book to read again when my son is older.
January 17, 2010
This book could have been more than it was-more colorful, more rhyming. Jane Yolen is one of my favorite authors but this book isn't her very best.
March 2, 2011
Jane wrote a poem for every color, her son took the photographs of nature. Not especially vivid imagery.
May 31, 2016
Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People
Yolen, Jane *
good for teaching mental images
Yolen, Jane *
good for teaching mental images
July 25, 2013
Outdated. Pictures look old.
November 26, 2016
Just re-reading an old favorite:>)
April 11, 2017
Love Jane Yolen and all the colors in nature.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews