What the heart knows : chants, charms & blessings Cover Image

Book

What the heart knows : chants, charms & blessings / by Newbery honor winner, Joyce Sidman ; illustrated by Caldecott honor winner, Pamela Zagarenski.

ISBN: 0544106164
ISBN: 9780544106161
Physical Description: 65 pages : color illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2013]

Sidman, Joyce, (author.). Zagarenski, Pamela, (illustrator.).

Summary:

What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings is a collection of poems to provide comfort, courage, and humor at difficult or daunting moments in life. It conjures forth laments, spells, invocations, chants, blessings, promises, songs, and charms. Here are pleas on how to repair a friendship, wishes to transform one<U+2019>s life or to slow down time, charms to face the shame of a disapproving crowd, invocations to ask for forgiveness, to understand the mysteries of happiness, and to bravely face a dark and different world. These words help us remember or grieve; they bolster courage and guard against evil; they help us celebrate and give thanks.

Poet extraordinaire Joyce Sidman won the Newbery Honor Medal for Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night and continues to write poetry for children that has been called "fresh," "inspiring," and "accessible" to her young audience. She is intrigued by the idea of "words of power" -- chants and charms that were once believed to have real influence in everyday life. Caldecott Honor-winning Pamela Zagarenski's beautiful art captures a world of emotion and the essence of Sidman's words.