Spring peeper, wood duck, predaceous diving beetle, green darner dragon fly. These and other creatures (and cattails!) are the stuff that poems are made of in Joyce Sidman’s playful, lyrical collection. “Brown velvet plumes / bob jauntily. On command, / our slim, waving arrows / rush toward the sun.” (From “The Season’s Campaign.”) Sidman’s keen-eyed poems offer acute descriptions of a world unto itself as she examines a pond ecosystem across the seasons. Beckie Prange’s hand-colored woodcuts add to the beauty of this lovely volume. (Ages 5–9)