Things to Do by Elaine Magliaro and Catia Chien

In honor of poetry month, I thought I'd share a beautiful new book called Things to Do by Elaine Magliaro and Catia Chien. 

There are so many great things to share about this book, but what struck me the most is the activeness in the theme of what may seem to be nonactive things. 

When teaching young children to write poetry we discuss describing things by what they do. Sometimes it's hard to image a tree doing something. After some thought, young ones come up with "grow" but then they can start to imagine that a tree can sway, reach, stretch, dance, and twirl it's leaves, 

From Amazon:
With playful prose and vivid art, Things to Do brings to life the small moments and secret joys of a child's day. There are wonders everywhere. In the sky and on the ground—blooming in a flower bed, dangling from a silken thread, buzzing through the summer air—waiting ...waiting to be found. In this thoughtful and ingenious collection of poems, Elaine Magliaro, an elementary school teacher for more than three decades and a school librarian for three years, and illustrator Catia Chien provide a luminous glimpse of the ordinary wonders all around us.

Below are just a few of the beautifully active poems in this book.