Cave

Siebert, Diane

ISBN 10: 068816448X ISBN 13: 9780688164485

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

I am the cave,
So cool and dark,
Where time, unending,
Leaves its mark.

The mazes of the cave reach back, from bright to darkest dark. Step through the sunny entrance and what treasures you'll find--colonies of bats sheltering in the dim light, deep chambers decorated with majestic columns of crystallizes rock, and secret worlds where pale, blind creatures live by hearing, touch, and smell.

All these and more await the reader of this stunning collaboration, in which Diane Siebert's rich, evocative text and Wayne McLoughlin's luminous paintings capture the magical, mysterious underground world of caves.

About this title

Review

Is there anyone who is not fascinated--and even a little frightened--by the dark, enfolding world of a cave?

Matching Wayne McLoughlin's exquisitely detailed, full-color paintings with Diane Siebert's elegant rhymed verse, this lovely volume introduces young readers to speleology. Told from the point of view of a cave that could be located just about anywhere on the planet, the text ranges from easy couplets to more extensive poetic passages that incorporate lessons in such matters as how stalactites and stalagmites form and the kinds of animals that make their homes in the subterranean depths, from crayfish to mites and "troglophiles." The language may prove challenging to some younger readers ("And through the eons I evolved, / My limestone, bit by bit, dissolved / By Nature's forces intertwined"), but with some friendly adult coaching, this makes for a fine vocabulary-building primer, providing enough context to define such daunting terms as technology and anteroom. Older readers, too, will appreciate the author's careful presentation and the artist's images of spiders, underground chambers, and other natural features. Siebert closes with a plea to preserve caves and the creatures that inhabit them, providing a gentle lesson in environmentalism to accompany the less value-charged science. (Ages 4 and older) --Gregory McNamee

About the Author

Diane Siebert is the author of Mojave, a 1988 Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, a 1988 Notable Children’s Trade Book in Social Studies, and a 1989 Teachers Choice, and Heartland , a 1989 Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, a 1989 Notable Children’s Trade Book in Social Studies, and a 1990 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts. Ms. Siebert lives at Crooked River Ranch, Oregon.

Wayne McLoughlin studied art at San Diego State University and has worked as a writer and illustrator for such magazines as Esquire and National Lampoon. His books for children include Fireflies, by Alice Hoffman, Here is the Wetland, by Madeleine Dunphy (both Hyperion), and Loch, by Paul Zindel. He lives with his wife and daughter in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 068816448X
• ISBN 13: 9780688164485
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: McLoughlin Wayne