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Poetree
Caroline Pignat's first picture book is an intriguing blend of carefully composed verbal images, knit together with extraordinary visuals by the award-winning François Thisdale. The poem is about the yearly cycle in the life of trees. But it's also an intriguing poetic concoction. The initial letters of each line in each stanza spell out a word that pertains to the theme.
For example, in the section on spring, the vertical letters spell SEED, GERMINATE, SHOOT, ROOTS, LEAVES, FLOWERS. The young reader will make that discovery as they read the text and look at the detailed illustrations that show a rural landscape with trees, a farmer, barns, animals, and the changing of the seasons.
For example, in the section on spring, the vertical letters spell SEED, GERMINATE, SHOOT, ROOTS, LEAVES, FLOWERS. The young reader will make that discovery as they read the text and look at the detailed illustrations that show a rural landscape with trees, a farmer, barns, animals, and the changing of the seasons.
76 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2018
25 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Pignat
15 books142 followersCaroline Pignat is the two-time Governor Generalʼs Award winning author of highly acclaimed young adult novels. Her historical fiction, contemporary, and free verse novels use multiple points of view and varied forms to engage readers of all ages.
As a Writer's Craft student, Caroline wrote a short story that years later became Greener Grass, the first of a critically acclaimed series, and went on to win her first Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature in 2009.
A teacher with the Ottawa Catholic School Board, Caroline has taught elementary, intermediate and high school students. She spends her mornings teaching grade 12 Writer’s Craft and her afternoons working with students in Writing Workshops and Author Visits, or deep in her next work-in-progress.
A confident and inspiring speaker, Caroline has presented to students and educators; to historical societies and library groups; and at writing conferences such as: MASC, CANSCAIP, and SCBWI. In 2012, she was one of 12 Canadian authors chosen to tour with TD Book Week.
Recipient of two Red Maple Honour Book Awards and the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year Honour Book, Caroline has been shortlisted for many others including: the CLA Book of the Year, three Geoffrey Bilson Awards for Historical Fiction, and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award.
Born in Ireland, she grew up in Ottawa where she lives with her family.
As a Writer's Craft student, Caroline wrote a short story that years later became Greener Grass, the first of a critically acclaimed series, and went on to win her first Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature in 2009.
A teacher with the Ottawa Catholic School Board, Caroline has taught elementary, intermediate and high school students. She spends her mornings teaching grade 12 Writer’s Craft and her afternoons working with students in Writing Workshops and Author Visits, or deep in her next work-in-progress.
A confident and inspiring speaker, Caroline has presented to students and educators; to historical societies and library groups; and at writing conferences such as: MASC, CANSCAIP, and SCBWI. In 2012, she was one of 12 Canadian authors chosen to tour with TD Book Week.
Recipient of two Red Maple Honour Book Awards and the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year Honour Book, Caroline has been shortlisted for many others including: the CLA Book of the Year, three Geoffrey Bilson Awards for Historical Fiction, and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award.
Born in Ireland, she grew up in Ottawa where she lives with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 12, 2019
Presenting delightfully, sweetly engaging (albeit at the end of the book also just a wee bit saddening albeit also at the same time exquisitely positive and reassuring) acrostic seasonal poems about how trees grow and flourish and how even once they die, trees scatter their seeds etc. for new beginnings and rebirth, for the most part, I have with Poetree indeed absolutely, totally loved loved loved the evocative marriage of Caroline Pignat's emotionally-charged impressionistic lyrical verses and François Thisdale's glowingly brightly colourful, expressive artwork (wonderful both written and illustrated images of the seasons, of trees in the springtime, in summer, in autumn, in winter, simply, tenderly, luminously, a tapestry of both verbal and visual arboreal loveliness sure to enchant both young and yes also old, both children and adults).
Four stars for my general reading pleasure with regard to Poetree, with regard to how Caroline Pignat's acrostic poems and Francois Thisdale's accompanying pictures work together, but I am nevertheless still going to have to lower my final and average ranking to but three stars for Poetree. As for one, I do think that the book would certainly benefit from an author's note with information about acrostic poetry as a lyrical form and that for two (and much more problematically for and to me), I personally really do not at all appreciate that the final two illustrations (accompanying poems about winter and death) show a tree trunk that has obviously been logged, that has been cut down by humans. For really, why could the illustrator, why could François Thisdale not have depicted a tree that had simply fallen and died naturally, why did he have to draw a tree that has obviously or at least in all likelihood been logged?
Four stars for my general reading pleasure with regard to Poetree, with regard to how Caroline Pignat's acrostic poems and Francois Thisdale's accompanying pictures work together, but I am nevertheless still going to have to lower my final and average ranking to but three stars for Poetree. As for one, I do think that the book would certainly benefit from an author's note with information about acrostic poetry as a lyrical form and that for two (and much more problematically for and to me), I personally really do not at all appreciate that the final two illustrations (accompanying poems about winter and death) show a tree trunk that has obviously been logged, that has been cut down by humans. For really, why could the illustrator, why could François Thisdale not have depicted a tree that had simply fallen and died naturally, why did he have to draw a tree that has obviously or at least in all likelihood been logged?
August 1, 2018
This picture book is a wonderful combination of a look into our favorite times of the year, and a lesson in acrostic poetry. Gorgeous paintings describe seasonal landscapes and bring to life the animals that inhabit them. A must have for school libraries to introduce seasonal changes and descriptive writing to young readers.
November 15, 2018
Disclaimer: Poetry is Not My Thing.
That said, I still found this book interesting. It follows the seasons in the life of a tree (and its surroundings), told in clever acrostics that give extra details about the parts of the tree.
That said, I still found this book interesting. It follows the seasons in the life of a tree (and its surroundings), told in clever acrostics that give extra details about the parts of the tree.
June 25, 2019
Beautiful book. I normally think that acrostics are not the pinnacle of types of poetry, however, this book raises my opinion of them immensely! This book is great for science, for figurative language and just for enjoyment. The illustrations are very expressive.
July 4, 2018
The seasons described with acrostic poems.
December 18, 2018
Poetry book: Absolutely exquisite illustrations and short poetry that captivates readers in very small amounts of words. Great tree theme.
April 12, 2019
I love the couplets followed by acrostics.
And the seasonal tie.
And the illustrations are beautiful.
A great book for school-age poetry lovers.
And for teachers to use in class.
And the seasonal tie.
And the illustrations are beautiful.
A great book for school-age poetry lovers.
And for teachers to use in class.
April 17, 2019
Beautiful acrostic poetry book. I will recommend this one to the teachers when they do their poetry units.
May 30, 2019
A wonderful mentor text to young poets.
August 7, 2019
Book 100 of 2019 - Reading Challenge Accomplished! Poetry meets science as the reader takes a yearlong journey through the lifecycle of a field.
January 13, 2021
A great children's book. It's a book of poetry following the life of a tree throughout the seasons. Simple and beautiful. I believe these are ACROSTIC poems (using each letter in a word as the first letter of each line of the poem. For example: TREE=Tall Rough Evergreen Echos). Just learned this term, so I'm super pleased with myself.
Anyway, POETREE is a lovely book. It needs to be seen as well as heard, so the reader can get the full experience of the acrostic technique.
And the illustrations are lovely.
Anyway, POETREE is a lovely book. It needs to be seen as well as heard, so the reader can get the full experience of the acrostic technique.
And the illustrations are lovely.
October 2, 2021
There are quite a few books with the title "Poetree"
The illustrations are the strength of this book.
The book of poems take the reader through the seasons.
Each season is introduced with a rhyming phrase,
otherwise the poems are acrostic.
The illustrations are the strength of this book.
The book of poems take the reader through the seasons.
Each season is introduced with a rhyming phrase,
otherwise the poems are acrostic.
July 3, 2022
A beautiful, engaging book. Pignat is a wonderful poet!
January 30, 2023
This beautiful book is full of short poems about the different seasons. The illustrations are amazing. The poems are built from the letters of the words being discussed.
March 19, 2026
What a revelatory book filled with acrostic poems and colourful artwork. Well chosen words and rhyming couplets make this book engaging and educational for readers of all ages (although targeted for school age children). An activity guide for the book is available on the author's website and through this link:
https://www.reddeerpress.com/usercont...
https://www.reddeerpress.com/usercont...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews