WATER SINGS BLUE by Kate Coombs

Bibliography

Coombs, Kate. 2012. Water Sings Blue. Ill. Meilo So. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Critical Analysis

Coombs uses a variety of poetic forms in her poems about the ocean. While all of them have some kind of rhyming pattern to them, they each have their own rhythm. She even includes a haiku. While I wouldn't consider any of the poems to be a concrete poem, Coombs definitely uses the layout of her poetry to help convey the message of the poem. The poem "What the Waves Say" uses punctuation and line breaks to create a rhythm that mimics the pulsating nature of waves that help the reader to not only see the waves being described, but to feel them.

So's illustrations add an almost ethereal quality to the poems that help add to the poetry without overtaking the poems. The use of pen, ink and watercolors reflect the watery setting of this book.

Example

This book is full of poems that are fun to read. I would use this in my classroom when we are studying about different habitats to showcase ocean life and the way even the non-living objects in the ocean seem to come to life because of the movement of the water. These poems would also be great to use to show the variety of life found in the ocean. The poem "Tide Pool Shopping" is a great example of how many different forms of life can be found under water.

Tide Pool Shopping

I'm going shopping at the tide pool.
They carry everything there -
mussels by the bushel
and three kinds of barnacle,
starfish and gobies to spare.

My mama gave me a shopping list.
I know I can find what she likes -
blennies for pennies,
beadlet anemones,
and urchins with lavender spikes.

I'll bring it all home in a basket.
Then mama can fix us a feast -
prawns by the dozens
and octopus cousins,
plus some kind of lobstery beast.

Today I'm shopping at the tide pool.
Maybe I'll see you there, too,
with your kittiwake pals
and the oystercatcher gals -
I'll save some limpets for you!