Swirl by Swirl

Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by Beth Krommes
Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
2011

     What do you get when you combine the amazing talents of Joyce Sidman (Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night and Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors) and Beth Krommes (The House in the Night)? Well, you get a marvelous book written just for me. Yep, you heard that right.
     So here's something you might not know about me. I have been totally obsessed with spirals since I was a little kid. I buy everything a find that has a spiral on it. If I were brave enough to get a tattoo, it would definitely be a Fibonacci's spiral.  Now, I know you know I love picture books and poetry, but another of my passions is Mathematics (love, love, Math). So now we have an amazing poet, a great illustrator, spirals, picture books, and math, all in one...and yes! This book was made just for me.
     Swirl by Swirl is perfectly simple yet incredibly deep. It takes you on a journey observing nature and all the different ways spirals appear in it.  From snuggling animals, to the curls of a fern, to the arms of the octopus, the spiral in the spiderweb, the tails of spider monkeys, the crest of a wave, the petals of the calla lily (my favorite flower...see? again...my book!). Spirals are everywhere. They are a "strong shape", "exploring the world," "clinging tight," "graceful and strong."
     And my favorite. "It is bold" as in the breaking ocean waves:

    Swirl by Swirl invites you (a lot like Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner) to observe nature closely, to see the world with a more careful eye and notice its wonders.  At the end of the book, the author has included detailed information about all the spirals in nature she made reference to in the poem. She concludes by saying "while we don't always understand the reasons behind this patterns [spirals], something in us responds to them. They are beautiful, satisfying, and endlessly fascinating." Just like this book. I'm almost mad I didn't read this book till now or I would have included it on my Top Books of 2011 list. So there it goes, it's officially part of my favorites.