Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

                   By Joyce Sidman/ Illustrated By Rick Allen

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night begins with “Welcome to the Night,” an invitation in verse “To all of you who crawl and creep, who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep.”  It’s an evening summons to the animals that wake at dusk to go about their nighttime business, enjoying the cool, damp shadows.  

Sidman introduces readers to woodland snails, the primrose moth, raccoons, porcupines, the red eft, and even the Dark Emperor himself, the great horned owl.  Among other animals, there are also poems that mark the coming of the mushrooms and the silent strength of the oak tree. The book closes with “Moon’s Lament,” where one creature reflects on the night’s events, questions where everyone has gone, and mourns the dawning of a new day.

Dark Emperor could well stand on its own as a book of poems, but the addition of short paragraphs of nonfiction coupled with each poem pushes it to a new level.  Each poem appears on the left of the two page spread with a small illustration.  The right side features a larger illustration and the descriptive text.

Readers not only are given a lyrical tour of the nighttime forest, but also learn more details about the poems’ subjects. For example, we learn that snails have teeth on their tongues, that while trees produce food during the day, they use the hours of darkness to make repairs and take in extra water, that baby porcupines are called porcupettes, and that one mushroom can produce two billion spores!

This gorgeous poetry collection, classified as juvenile nonfiction, will be a great addition to any collection. I purchased this book for my own classroom library and will use it as a mentor text while teaching lessons in the poetry genre. I was impressed with not only the poetry and illustrations but also with the accompanying factual information about the creatures the poem was about. I highly recommend this book to teachers of all grade levels.