Earthdance

My 8 year old daughter & I love to read this book together! What a great way to connect to mother earth through the love of books/reading.

I picked this story up in the Spring to read to my first grade class around Earth Day. First I read it to them with the illustrations, and then we read it a second time, with the children closing their eyes and visualizing. They loved this and produced the most amazing drawings, with writing of how they'd dance upon the Earth. I recommend this book highly to parents or teachers for a variety of reasons: It is beautiful, it inspires imagination, and it reflects love for the Earth.

Not knowing the subject of this book, I sat down to read "Earth Dance" out loud to my young daughter (not because she can't read, but because we enjoy reading to each other). I began as I usually begin a book -- finding the passion in the words and the mood of the illustrations as I read out loud. I was immediately enchanted by the beauty of the words in this poem, and so moved by the message that, to my surprise, tears began to well in my eyes! I was reading the line "You are twirling so gracefully, carefully, not even the sand moves as you spin..". Surprised by my reaction, I looked through my own teary eyes into (surprise again!)the teary eyes of my ten-year-old daughter. She was as deeply affected as I! That truly is the hallmark of a good poet and artist, who can touch your heart and mind so completely with words.Hours later, still deeply affected by the story, illustrations, and our reaction to them, I realized that I had just experienced a gentle magic moment, no small thing for an adult who has read a hundred children's books. I cannot say enough about how good this book is --for children and the adults who read to them. To the mothers of future ecologists, future artists, future parents...to all the readers of Joanne Ryder's Earth Dance: dance slowly, spin gently, and carry this book home to share with all the children of our precious Earth.