Orangutanka
A Story in Poems
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
All the orangutans are ready for a nap in the sleepy depths of the afternoon . . . all except one. This little orangutan wants to dance! A hip-hop, cha-cha-cha dance full of somersaults and cartwheels. But who will dance with her?
Written in bold poems in the tanka style, an ancient Japanese form of poetry that is often used as a travel diary, this exuberant orangutan celebration from acclaimed poet Margarita Engle will make readers want to dance, too!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Engle makes expressive use of the five-line tanka poetry form to study a family of orangutans living in a wildlife refuge. A sense of movement sometimes dramatic, sometimes quiet emanates from nearly every entry. Kurilla's dynamic mixed-media images show an adult orangutan perched between branches ("papa/ is too massive/ for treetops / his great weight makes/ low branches waltz slowly"), while another spread follows another orangutan's progress down to the jungle floor, where rangers have prepared a feast ("towering green trees/ shiver, sway, rattle, and shake/ when orangutans/ clamber toward colorful mounds/ of bananas and mangoes"). Information about orangutans and the threats they face closes out this warm, rewarding portrait of these intelligent apes. Ages 4 8.
