Author Profile
Joyce Sidman
20 Books
Joyce Sidman is an award-winning children's author and poet whose work frequently celebrates the wonders of the natural world. She is known for creating beautifully researched nonfiction and nature poetry, including the Newbery Honor-winning Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night and the Sibert Medal-winning The Girl Who Drew Butterflies. Her books often combine scientific facts with engaging, lyrical text to inspire young readers.
When the sun goes down, the forest does not go to sleep. It rustles, hunts, hides, repairs, and sings.
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night takes you into the cool, shadowy woods after dark. Mice stir, moths flutter, spiders spin, snails curl into shells, and the great horned owl waits in the trees. Each poem captures the mystery and beauty of nocturnal life without making the night feel too scary for young readers.
With rich language and fascinating nature details, Joyce Sidman turns the dark forest into a place of wonder. This award-winning picture book is a strong choice for children who love animals, poetry, nighttime stories, and discovering what happens in nature when most people are asleep.
6-8 Years
29 Pages
N/A
/5
Before morning, the world is moving fast. Planes must fly, buses must come, and a family has places to go.
But one child longs for snow, quiet, and time together at home. In spare, songlike words, Before Morning follows a wish spoken with hope: that the busy day might soften into something slower, colder, and more peaceful.
This gentle picture book is about family, weather, and the small magic of wanting a pause from ordinary routines. Joyce Sidman’s text feels like a hush before sunrise, while the story’s snowy mood makes it especially appealing for readers who love winter books, bedtime read-alouds, and tender stories about being close to the people you love.
6-8 Years
50 Pages
N/A
/5
A dog slips out. A white cat is alone on the street. Then the day begins to shape itself into an adventure.
Meow Ruff tells its story through concrete poetry, where the words on the page help create the action, movement, and feeling of the scene. The playful form makes the book especially fun for readers who like looking closely at how words can sound, move, and become part of the pictures.
At its heart, this is a lively animal story about a dog and a cat crossing paths and beginning something together. Joyce Sidman’s inventive use of poetry gives young readers a fresh way to experience friendship, pets, and city-street adventure through language itself.
6-8 Years
36 Pages
N/A
/5
After crowded hallways, awkward crushes, homework, and complicated days, a dog may be waiting with exactly the kind of welcome you need.
The World According to Dog celebrates the bond between teenagers and their canine companions through poems, prose, and photographs. Some pieces are funny, some are tender, and some capture the exasperating truth that dogs can be messy, needy, loyal, and completely unforgettable.
Joyce Sidman’s writing is joined by teen voices that speak honestly about what dogs bring to their lives: comfort, balance, humor, and companionship. This reflective nonfiction collection is a strong choice for teen readers who love dogs, personal essays, poetry, and books about the ordinary relationships that can steady us when growing up feels overwhelming.
13-18 Years
84 Pages
N/A
/5
Maria Sibylla Merian noticed what other people ignored: tiny eggs, crawling caterpillars, strange insects, and the astonishing change from caterpillar to butterfly.
In a time when many people believed insects were unpleasant or even dangerous to study, Maria looked closer. She observed living creatures directly, drew what she saw, and followed her curiosity even when the world expected girls and women to stay within narrow limits.
This nonfiction biography blends science, art, and history to introduce one of the early naturalists who helped document metamorphosis. Joyce Sidman presents Maria’s life with clarity and admiration, showing how careful observation can become discovery. For readers who love true stories, insects, art, and women’s history, this is an inspiring portrait of a person who dared to ask questions and draw the answers.
9-12 Years
13-18 Years
163 Pages
N/A
/5
A pond may look still from far away, but lean closer and it hums with life.
In Song of the Water Boatman, poems introduce the animals, insects, and plants that live in and around a pond. You will meet small swimmers, hidden hunters, growing plants, and creatures whose lives depend on water, mud, light, and each other.
Each poem is paired with factual information, so the book feels both beautiful and useful. Joyce Sidman’s writing encourages readers to observe the natural world carefully, while the science notes add real details about pond life. This is an inviting choice for readers who enjoy nature poetry, animal facts, and books that make an ordinary outdoor place feel busy, surprising, and alive.
6-8 Years
9-12 Years
45 Pages
N/A
/5
An oak writes to an acorn. Big things speak to little things. Little things answer back.
Dear Acorn (Love, Oak) is a collection of poems told as letters between parts of the natural world. Each exchange gives two sides of a relationship, showing how different creatures and objects in an ecosystem may see things in their own way while still being connected.
For readers who enjoy gentle nature books, these poems offer a thoughtful way to notice size, perspective, growth, and belonging. Joyce Sidman’s letter-poems make the outdoors feel personal and alive, inviting you to wonder what trees, seeds, and other pieces of nature might say if they could send messages to one another.
6-8 Years
N/A
/5
Some creatures seem to be everywhere: ants, beetles, crows, sharks, geckos, and other life forms that have survived across time and habitats.
Ubiquitous explores why certain plants and animals endure while many others disappear. Through poems and factual information, Joyce Sidman introduces readers to organisms that have adapted, spread, and continued living in deserts, forests, lakes, houses, farmland, and other places across Earth.
This nonfiction poetry collection brings together evolution, survival, and natural history in an accessible way. It is especially appealing for readers who like animal facts, big science questions, and books that connect poetry with real-world learning. Each featured creature becomes part of a larger question: what helps life last?
6-8 Years
9-12 Years
43 Pages
N/A
/5
Every invention begins with a problem, a question, or a sudden spark of possibility.
Eureka! presents poems about inventors and the things they created, including the printing press, the dishwasher, and Velcro. Each poem gives readers a way to think about discovery not as something distant or dry, but as a human process filled with curiosity, persistence, and imagination.
Joyce Sidman’s collection connects poetry with invention history, making it a useful and engaging choice for middle grade readers who like science, technology, and creative problem solving. The book encourages readers to see inventions as ideas shaped by real people, real needs, and the excitement of figuring something out.
9-12 Years
58 Pages
N/A
/5
Some poems feel like wishes. Some feel like courage. Some feel like the words you need when your own are hard to find.
What the Heart Knows is a poetry collection about hope, wisdom, fear, strength, and the private feelings people carry inside. Joyce Sidman’s poems have the shape of charms, chants, blessings, and invocations, giving teen readers language for moments of uncertainty, longing, and resolve.
Paired with Pamela Zagarenski’s dreamlike artwork, this book has the feel of a keepsake: something to read slowly, return to often, and share with someone who needs the right words. It is a strong choice for teens who appreciate reflective poetry, emotional honesty, and artful books about inner life.
13-18 Years
83 Pages
N/A
/5
In one sixth-grade class, a simple assignment becomes something much bigger: write a poem that says, I’m sorry.
This Is Just to Say gathers apology poems from students whose words reveal mistakes, secrets, regrets, jokes, friendships, and family feelings. The poems show how powerful a few honest lines can be, especially when saying sorry is complicated.
Joyce Sidman’s middle grade poetry collection is funny, tender, and sometimes surprisingly sharp. It captures the voices of students who are learning how words can hurt, heal, and open a door to understanding. This is a thoughtful choice for readers who enjoy school stories, realistic emotions, and poetry that feels close to real life.
9-12 Years
N/A
/5
The meadow has secrets, and the clues are hidden in wings, eyes, stems, songs, and shadows.
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow uses poetry riddles and factual information to reveal the living world of a meadow. Each poem invites you to guess, observe, and think like a nature detective before learning more about the plants and creatures that share this sunny habitat.
Joyce Sidman’s poems make science feel playful and mysterious, while Beth Krommes’s artwork gives the meadow texture, movement, and detail. This book is a rewarding choice for readers who enjoy animal facts, insects, nature poetry, and books that ask them to look more closely at outdoor places they might otherwise pass by.
6-8 Years
9-12 Years
49 Pages
N/A
/5
Earth is under your feet, above your head, and full of questions.
Hello Earth! speaks to the planet as if it can answer back. Through imaginative poems, you will travel across continents, seas, skies, plants, creatures, rocks, water, and moonlit tides. Each poem invites you to wonder how Earth works and why its systems are so powerful and beautiful.
This book blends poetry with science, making big ideas feel close enough to touch. Alongside the poems, extra scientific material explains topics such as water cycles, plate tectonics, ecosystems, and ocean tides. With luminous illustrations by Miren Asiain Lora, it is a thoughtful picture book for curious readers who like nature, Earth science, and asking big questions about the home we all share.
6-8 Years
9-12 Years
N/A
/5
A snail shell curls. A fern unfurls. A wave twists, a galaxy turns, and suddenly one shape seems to be everywhere.
Swirl by Swirl follows spirals through the natural world, showing how this beautiful shape appears in tiny living things, rushing water, flowers, animals, and faraway space. Joyce Sidman’s simple, lyrical text helps readers see that a spiral is not just pretty; it can protect, hold, move, and grow.
Beth Krommes’s illustrations add texture and detail, making each page feel like something to explore closely. This nonfiction picture book is ideal for readers who enjoy nature, shapes, science, and noticing patterns in the world around them.
6-8 Years
32 Pages
N/A
/5
Round things are everywhere once you start looking: eggs, berries, seeds, stones, flowers, planets, and the Earth itself.
In Round, a child’s curiosity leads readers through a world that is budding, swelling, ripening, and spinning. Joyce Sidman’s poetic text celebrates roundness in nature, from small discoveries close at hand to huge wonders in space.
This picture book is gentle, observant, and full of quiet delight. Taeeun Yoo’s illustrations support the sense of discovery, helping young readers connect shapes with living things and natural patterns. For children who like noticing details, asking questions, and finding beauty in everyday objects, Round turns a familiar shape into an invitation to wonder.
6-8 Years
36 Pages
N/A
/5
Red is not only a color. It sings from treetops, flashes in summer berries, and glows in autumn leaves.
In this lyrical picture book, colors move through the year like living things. You will meet yellow in spring, green in summer, brown in fall, and white in winter, all woven into poems that make the seasons feel fresh and surprising.
Joyce Sidman’s language is playful, musical, and full of wonder, while Pamela Zagarenski’s art gives each page a dreamlike sparkle. Perfect for young readers who love nature, colors, and beautiful read-alouds, this award-winning book invites you to look closely at the world outside and notice how every season has its own voice.
6-8 Years
37 Pages
N/A
/5
Winter may look frozen and still, but beneath the snow, life is busy surviving.
Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold explores how animals and plants endure the harshest season. Bees cluster for warmth, beavers shelter deep below the snow, snakes avoid freezing, and other creatures find clever ways to stay alive until spring returns.
Joyce Sidman pairs poems with science sidebars, giving readers both beauty and real information about nature in winter. The book captures cold, danger, patience, and resilience without losing its sense of wonder. For readers who love animal survival stories, seasonal books, and science told through poetry, this collection reveals the hidden drama of the cold.
6-8 Years
9-12 Years
37 Pages
N/A
/5
A tiny treefrog can be hard to see, but once you notice it, the whole world feels different.
Dear Treefrog follows a child’s quiet connection with a small frog through brief, perceptive poems and science notes. As the treefrog hides, changes color, clings with sticky toe pads, and protects itself from danger, the narrator finds comfort and mystery in watching this small creature closely.
Joyce Sidman blends poetry with natural facts in a way that feels gentle and thoughtful. Diana Sudyka’s illustrations help bring the treefrog’s world to life. This picture book is a lovely fit for readers who like animals, nature, and stories about how paying attention to one small living thing can make you feel less alone.
6-8 Years
45 Pages
N/A
/5
Some animal fathers guard, carry, shelter, and protect their young in surprising ways.
Just Us Two presents eleven poems from the point of view of animal dads and their babies, including emperor penguins, Nile crocodiles, and giant water bugs. The poems range from quiet to rowdy, showing that care in the animal world can look very different from species to species.
This book is a warm introduction to animal parenting, blending poetry with nature observation. Joyce Sidman gives each father and child pair a distinct voice, helping readers think about family, protection, and survival beyond the human world. It is a strong choice for children who enjoy animal books, science topics, and poems that bring real creatures vividly to life.
6-8 Years
N/A
/5
Branches are not only on trees. They spread through rivers, flowers, frost, lightning, butterfly wings, gecko toes, and even your own body.
We Are Branches celebrates one of nature’s most useful shapes. Through lyrical nonfiction text, Joyce Sidman shows how branching helps living things and natural systems reach, connect, carry, and grow. The book invites you to search for patterns in places both familiar and unexpected.
Beth Krommes’s artwork gives the subject richness and texture, making each page a chance to discover more. A companion to Swirl by Swirl, this picture book is ideal for young readers who enjoy nature, science, shapes, and books that turn careful looking into wonder.
6-8 Years
N/A
/5
