In Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman has written a delightful book of poetry about bees buzzing, crickets chirping, and sounds and lives of many more insects. This engagingly interactive poetry collection is a wonderful way for parents to spend time with their children, working together to discover the amusing plights and everyday activities of insects.
Designed to be read by two people, the poems are separated into two columns that cleverly complement each other and often emulate sounds and actions of the insects. Grasshoppers turn into, "Grass/ leapers/ Grass/ bounders/ Grass/ springers/ Grass/ soarers (4)," as they leap and jump along, while fireflies are described as "insect calligraphers" and "six-legged scribblers" that are, "glittering/ gleaming/ glowing (13)." Fleischman replicates the lives of the insects by adapting the melodic rhythm of his poems to imitate the critters using short, choppy lines to describe the lifecycle of the mayfly and long, flowing rhythm to illustrate the lengthy formation of a chrysalis. Repetition, alliteration and rhyming words combine to make these poems dessert for the ears.
Fleishman also uses the two voices in the story to creatively complement one another to weave together a single storyline in poems such as Mayflies here reader one and two alternate to describe their mating, "rising high,/ then falling,/ courting on the wing,/ then mating in midair (9)." At other times the author clever uses the voices to create two separate characters as in Book Lice and Honeybees, where one voice is the queen bee describing the wonderful life she leads, while the other is a worker speaking of his miserable existence. The two hilariously describe their lives from opposite perspectives while worker bee says "Truly a bee's is the/ best/ of all lives" and the queen simultaneously says "Truly a bee's is the/ best/ of all lives (31)."
He cleverly combines scientifically accurate characteristics of the insects with witty stories to create a unique volume of works. Each of his poems describes a unique scene and the insects comically take on human attributes when two book lice fall in love, fireflies become calligraphers, and water striders entertain with a discourse on how easy it is to walk on water. The insects' attributes are illustrated by Beddows, whose black and white sketches personify insects while accurately depicting their anatomy. In Book Lice, Beddows uses detailed shading to illustrate the lice smiling and waving from behind page they have eaten through.
Advanced vocabulary may prevent small children from reading, but readers of all ages will delight in sharing the "Booming/ boisterous/ joyful noise (28)" of insects.
