Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet

Sayre offers a powerful expression of gratitude for all that planet Earth has to offer. Vivid nature photography accompanies the prayerlike text: "Thank you for leaves and stems and buds, for plant parts we can eat. Thank you for sounds and storms, and seasons." Sayre's photographs vary in their compositions, sometimes with a single image taking up a spread and sometimes two or more images featured side by side. "Thank you for those that crawl," Sayre writes of a creature that resembles a land crab. "Yes, all. All. All. Even those that sting," she continues, in reference to a photograph of bees pollinating a flower. "Thank you for beginnings, for endings, for lifetimes. Thank you for being our home," Sayre concludes, with a spread showing a squirrel, pink flowers, and tide pools at dusk. In appended materials, she provides suggestions of ways readers can show their own thanks to the planet. Ages 4-8. Agent: Emily Mitchell, Wernick & Pratt Agency. (Feb.)

K-Gr 4--Photographs of the natural world accompany a poem that gives thanks to the earth. The author/photographer of Raindrops Roll, Best in Snow, and Full of Fall has penned a lyrical thank you note to Earth illustrated with her signature photography. Close-ups featuring alluring shapes, patterns, and textures; seascapes and mountains; animals in action; and striking skies are varied and beautifully reproduced and arranged, with the text of the poem set directly on the pictures in large, legible print. "Dear earth," she begins. "Thank you for water and those that float, /for slippery seaweed/and stone. Thank you for mountains and minerals, /that strengthen bills/and bone." The carefully crafted verse, with its rhymes and repeated sounds, should be a pleasure to read aloud--Sayre's skillful use of enjambment is notable, too. A long author's note suggests ways that young people can say thank-you to the earth themselves that go beyond the usual. A list of selected resources and organizations and a welcome explanation (subject and location) of every photograph complete this attractive package. VERDICT A splendid marriage of poetry and photography, consider for all nature-related collections.--Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD