Spring is sometimes a long time coming. As snow melts and winter slowly blows away, the earth begins its unfolding of new life and hopeful greening. While we can still snowshoe through the soft white and sip the clear, wintry air, we dream of the sparkle of spring, that wind-chapped-cheek time, where “baby fiddleheads sleep/like so many questions deep” and the sun comes “smiling in/as longer days of light begin.” A poetic celebration of the season, Sing in the Spring! invites readers into a rural family home and the natural world that surrounds them. Tiny details and clues emerging from hibernation are a source of wonder, seeds hold secrets of sunflowers, and mudliscious puddles await! A collection of verse germinating for years, ever since author Sheree Fitch first experienced the magical artwork of artist Deb Plestid, whose luminous, original quiltwork illustrates this gentle, vibrant book, brimming with the joy of spring.

Sheree Fitch's first two books, Toes in My Nose (1987) and Sleeping Dragons All Around (1989), launched her career as a poet, rhymster, and a “kind of Canadian female Dr. Seuss.” Fitch has won almost every major award for Canadian childrenÕs literature since then, including the 2000 Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work Inspirational to Canadian Children. She has over twenty-five books to her credit, including her bestselling and critically praised adult novel, Kiss the Joy as it Flies (2008). Fitch's home base is the East Coast of Canada.

Visit her at: shereefitch.com

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Surrounded by an Acadian forest and farm fields in northern Nova Scotia, Deb Plestid plays with fabric, thread, and paint. Her eye is drawn mostly to nature, mathematics, light, and shadow; exploring colours, textures, and life. Her work is in collections in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Her singular pleasure is eliciting a smile with her work. Visit her at debplestid.com.

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