Fireflies at Midnight

by Marilyn Singer, Ken Robbins (Illustrator)

A robin cheerfully greets the day at dawn.
A horse nibbles grass under the heat of the midday sun.
A rabbit stands still, disappearing into the grass at dusk.
As evening falls, a frog tells the world that he's the king of the pond.
During one summer day, these and other creatures tell their tales, celebrating their ordinary -- but extraordinary -- lives in verse. Young readers will be entranced by the many voices created by renowned poet Marilyn Singer. They will be encouraged to look more closely at the surprising world around them -- morning, noon, and night.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Teeny Probst · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: In Fireflies at Midnight, a summer day unfolds through the voices of a variety of animals. From animals such as a horse, mole, otter, and robin, their tales are told of their extraordinary lives in verse. Through this collection of poetry, one becomes more familiar with the world around them. A world that contains different creatures who all view the world in a different way.

Written by: Marilyn Singer
Illustrated by: Keri Robbins

Audience: K-2nd

Genre: American poetry and juvenile poetry

Topics:
Animals
Birds
Character and Values
Marine Life
Science
Social Studies

Literary Elements: Figurative language including personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration.

Illustration: Keri Robbins photorealistic art brings each animal into an up-close focus along with surroundings that are true to the animal’s habitat. The artwork is an educational experience in itself.

Usage: This particular book can be used in a variety of setting in the classroom including independent reading, guided reading, and reading out loud. Poetry is a great way to introduce children to the curriculum, especially with animals. A teacher can find its text helpful when introducing children to the world around them and poetry itself.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's author and poet Marilyn Singer and photorealistic illustrator Ken Robbins pair up in this picture book tribute to a series of animals going about their lives over the course of a summer's day and night. From a robin to a mole, fourteen animals are profiled in fourteen poems, starting at dawn and proceeding through the day and into the night. Each two-page spread features a poem on the left-hand side and a full-page illustration on the right...

One of a number of picture books I requested from the library, after seeing some fireflies the other night and being reminded of how magical I found those twinkling insects as a girl, Fireflies at Midnight turned out not to be devoted exclusively to the titular creatures, but rather to a variety of animals. Although not what I expected, I nevertheless found it very appealing, and enjoyed many of the poems a great deal. Clever and nimbly worded, they would be a pleasure to read aloud, and I found some of them particularly fun. My favorite of the lot was the one devoted to the otter: "It starts with the slide / with the mud / with the ride / Then the splash / and the dip / and the flip / and the glide..." The accompanying artwork was interesting, described on the colophon as being "rendered photographic treatments." I don't know that it truly spoke to me, or that I would seek out more of it, but I appreciated seeing something a little bit different from what I am used to stylistically speaking. This is one I would recommend to picture book audiences looking for fun poems about animals.

[Jessica Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grades- K-2
Genre: Poetry

The poetry in this book is beautifully written. Marilyn Singer did a great job of portraying various creatures during various parts of the day through poetry. This work is very creative and I think this book would make a good read aloud for kids, especially during a poetry lesson.

[Kaitlyn Papp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry
Grade: 2-3
This story is full of interesting facts and ideas about creatures. The poetry aspect is beautifully written with different styles and rhythms throughout. I loved the illustrations and was captivated by the realistic quality of them. I imagine being interested in this book as a young reader and engaging with this book in multiple ways.

[Liv Feisel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the short, easy-to-read poems in this book and I enjoyed how each creature had a distinctive voice and style. I think this book could be utilized in a classroom to compare and contrast the voices of the different creatures, integrating style elements like repetition, alliteration, rhyme, and stanza into a lesson.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely nature poems. sweet little poems about the natural world great to be exposing baby roo to poetry.

[Keegan Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry
Grade: K-4
A very fun poetry book that tells the story of a bunch of different creatures and their lives. This is a fun book to keep around the classroom and allow students to read here and there.

[Kaitlyn Shoemaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book would be great for early primary and primary grades and is a poetry book, I really loved this book! I thought it was so good! I really fell in love with the detail of all the pictures, I think I spent more time looking at the pictures than reading the book. It brought back memories of late summer nights and camping.

[Landon Rotolo-Utz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer is a wonderful book when discussing children's poetry. The poems, which are written to capture the behaviors or likeness of a particular animal, are successful due to the use of different tones and elements of poetry. Singer for example in otter Singer uses short lines and rhymes to create a sense of playfulness representing the manner of young otters as they play in the water and sunshine. I particularly enjoyed how she connected the poems of otter and crayfish by describing the setting and an interaction that would occur between the two. This helps to portray the feeling of connectedness that all of nature shares. spider is all about the web and how it serves so many purposes. Singer uses repetition to seal in this sense of importance while still using short lines in centered form helps portray the small but powerful image of a spider's web.

I would love to use this book to introduce poetry to young students. This could be done in a read aloud for enrichment or curricular purposes. The wide range of animals and the various poetic elements used offer several uses in an academic setting. I would also think to use this for slightly older elementary students due to the fact these poems are written in particular line format. The content is easy for the students to understand and it will give them a way to transition into form poetry unlike many of the other books containing children's poetry I've read. Plus Ken Robbins does a fantastic job on the illustrations. The pictures are beautiful and children will love them.

[Mary Feeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer is a book of poems about animals and insects. It uses a unique craft of using the voices of the animal within the verses, such as, "Wait, I can wait For the fullness of wings For the lift For the flight" when describing the butterfly. It takes the point of view of the creature and describes how he/she might see the world. All the illustrations are done in a creative way as a close up view within their own habitat.

I would highly recommend Fireflies at Midnight for students in grades Pre-K to grade 2. The illustrations are captivating and true to life. The poems include repetition and predicability for young listens. It offers a playful tone and depicts illustrations the represent true animal behavior.

I would connect this book to a science unit of study on animals and insects or with the book, "Fairies and Fireflies-Bedtime Stories by Becca Pierce which is a story that ties in the social justice topic of friendship and how others can accept you for who you are even though you are all different.

My favorite verse is
"I am the
(flash)
summer romancer
In the night
(flash)
My light
(flash)
asks Are You The One?
Come
(flash)"
I would ask students to pick a topic and write their own verse using "voice" within their writing.

[Christian Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal reaction- This poetry book is composed of numerous poems about different animals and insects that are represented at different times of the day. What I like most about this poetry book is the way that every poem has an illustration that it is representing in creative detail. Some of my favorites are the poem about the bat, the firefly, and the red fox, because they have a dark and mysterious, yet calming tone to them.

Purposes- I would use this book in a read aloud for children in kindergarten. The reason being that they are at a stage in development where they will benefit from being exposed to poetry in the forms of things they can relate to such as animals and insects. They have a lot of fun identifying different animals and insects, and to be able to incorporate exposure to poetry alongside that is a huge bonus. Furthermore, the illustrations for each poem are captivating and are very fun to analyze and look at. The kids can choose from a variety of animals they want to learn about. In a unit on science and nature, you could allow the kids to gather more information on one of the animals that the poetry book covers, or allow them to write their own poems about the an animal of their choice, using this book as an example.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Response: I love how each poem in this book is written about a particular animal and what time of day they are usually associated with. It is upbeat and has really awesome realistic pictures.

Purposes: These short poems would be great to read aloud to students of any age. Students in 2nd grade or above could also read a poem about their favorite animal aloud to the class. It is a great poetry book that could be incorporated into a science unit on animals. Each poem is shaped a bit differently and has a different beat to it. All of the poems rhyme and also have some good vocabulary words that I could discuss with my students. The illustrations are also wonderfully detailed and realistic. The children could make their own illustrations and poems based on their favorite animal by using this book as a resource. Great book to show students that poetry can be easy to read, interesting, fun, and informative.

[Joanna Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

ages 6-12. This book of poetry features a different animal on each page with a poem describing the daily activities of that animal. The poetry itself involves repetition and remains true to the real life animal behaviors. This often means that the terms are a little advanced and that the invoked images can lack imagination. The title "Fireflies at Midnight" gives the reader the impression that the poems will try to connect the theme of animal behavior to something thematically larger, but it remains inside the boundaries of observable reality. The illustrations are artistically altered photos which creates a nice parallel to the poetry which itself could be called artistically altered snapshots of the life of each animal pictured. Overall this book could have been more fun, but is highly informative and enjoyable to look at.

[Janet Squires]

Singer treats her young audience to a lively collection of verses that carry the reader from dawn to midnight on a summer's day. Cheerful robins greet the morning, horses laze in the sun, rabbits disappear at dusk, frogs boast in the evening and fireflies share their brilliance at midnight. Singer collects a diverse group of creatures and each poem effectively capture the voice of the varied animals as she does in these opening lines for "Otter."

"It starts with the slide with the mud with the ride. Then the splash and the dip and the flip and the glide."

This is a book that begs to be read aloud for the pleasure of the words, as an invitation to observe the natural world, and as a lovely introduction to a study of animals.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Dawn to Dusk and back again, Fireflies At Midnight highlights creatures that make up the landscape during specific times of day. Beautiful illustrations accompany the text.

Used for "You Light Up My Night, Firefly" Storytime: June, 2011.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book of animal poetry, much of it freeform. Poetry books aren't typically my thing but I had fun reading this one. I love the illustrations with their photographic undertone.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A variety of creatures tell what their day is like in these verse pieces. This would be a nice addition to an elementary Science class.

[Bree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:
nature poems full of alliteration
art looks like retouched photos -- pretty
used for age 4-7

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was 32 pages of boring poems of animals at various times of the day. That's all! Oh, the illustrations made the book.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poems in the voices of animals. No supplemental text at the back though.