1. JOYCE SIDMAN
“Writing helps us understand the world; we'd be lost
without it.”

2. BIOGRAPHY
Born and raised in Currently lives in Enjoys snuggling She has written close to 100
Connecticut Wayzata, with her dog and books! (eleven are
Minnesota reading published)
Earned Bachelor’s Spent a lot of time as a child in
Volunteers at Children’s
Degree in German the Poconos area:
Hospital in Minneapolis,
from Wesleyan -deer watching
MN
University -blueberry picking
-tractor riding

3. WORKS INCLUDE:
• As well as:
-Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (Newbery Medal nominated)
-Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors
-Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems
-Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry
-This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness
-The World According to Dog: Poems and Teen Voices
-Eureka!: Poems about Inventors
-Just Us Two: Poems/Animal Dads
-Like the Air: Poems
-When I Was Young and Old
-Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

4. WRITERLY
Techniques Themes
• voice
of
poem
told
from
a
historical
• natural
world
figure
or
an
animal
• outdoor
setting
• sometimes
in
shape
of
an
animal
• animals
• obvious
rhyme
scheme
• Insects
• alliteration
• appealing
to
those
who
love
being
• easy
to
follow
language
outdoors
and
adventure
• image
• narrative
poem

5. Grass
EXAMPLE’S OF SIDMAN’S I
grow
in
places
POEMS others
can’t,
where
wind
is
high
and
water
scant.
I
drink
the
rain,
Welcome
to
the
Night
I
eat
the
sun;
To
all
of
you
who
crawl
and
creep,
who
buzz
and
chirp
and
hoot
and
peep,
before
the
prairie
winds
who
wake
at
dusk
and
throw
off
sleep:
I
run.
Welcome
to
the
night.
I
see,
I
sprout,
I
grow,
I
creep,
To
you
who
make
the
forest
sing,
who
dip
and
dodge
on
silent
wing,
and
in
the
ice
who
flutter,
hover,
clasp,
and
cling:
and
snow,
I
sleep.
Welcome
to
the
night!
On
steppe
or
veld
Come
feel
the
cool
and
shadowed
breeze,
or
pampas
dry,
come
smell
your
way
among
the
trees,
come
touch
rough
bark
and
leathered
beneath
the
grand,
enormous
sky,
leaves:
Welcome
to
the
night.
I
make
my
humble,
bladed
bed.
The
night's
a
sea
of
dappled
dark,
the
night's
a
feast
of
sound
and
spark,
And
where
there’s
level
ground,
the
night's
a
wild,
enchanted
park.
I
spread.
Welcome
to
the
night!

6. CONTENT CONNECTION:
Welcome
to
Night
Activity: Complete Graphic Organizer
TEKS
Connection:
§112.12.
Science,
Grade
1,
Students could complete the following graphic organizer
Beginning
with
School
Year
2010-­‐2011.
after the teacher reads the poem to the class. She may
(b)
Knowledge
and
skills.
ask questions along the way to prompt student’s
knowledge about nocturnal animals. Students could
(10)
Organisms
and
environments.
The
student
complete the following organizer with their table.
knows
that
organisms
resemble
their
parents
and
Nocturnal Non-Nocturnal
have
structures
and
processes
that
help
them
survive
within
their
environments.
The
student
is
Examples
expected
to:
of
*(A)
investigate
how
the
external
characteristics
different
animals:
of
an
animal
are
related
to
where
it
lives,
how
it
moves,
and
what
it
eats;
Characteristics: