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As quickly as he could, Robin grabbed the morning light
and headed back to the forest.”<\/em><\/p>\n
* * * Debbie Ouellet<\/strong><\/a>, How Robin Saved Spring<\/strong><\/a><\/em>* * *<\/center><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m so happy Spring has sashayed through the door today — with her head held high and a bouquet in hand. There are things I really love and appreciate about Winter, but generally I don’t think I’d survive well anywhere where it’s mostly cold for most of the time. Unless I’m inside with hot chocolate or a steaming cup of coffee in hand, I tend to merely abide<\/em> Winter quietly (perhaps not-so-quietly, if you ask my husband, who would be happy living on the arctic tundra, I think). Beautiful snowfalls are a real joy and make all the cold worth it, but we don’t get a lot of those in Tennessee. <\/p>\n Remember in April of last year<\/strong><\/a> when Italian illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli<\/strong><\/a> stopped by one Sunday to share some art work — and pretty much left me speechless? She’s illustrated this new title, an original pourquoi tale of sorts, which presents—“{l}ong ago, in a little cottage”—Lady Winter and Sister Spring, pictured below. They’re sisters, and when it’s time for Lady Winter to step aside for Spring, she’s altogether too reluctant. Knitting a cold white blanket for Sister Spring, Lady Winter creeps into her room and places it over her sister, making it so that she dozes a bit longer than the nine months she normally sleeps aways. Robin sees all this and calls upon the forest creatures to help save Spring, in more ways than one. Bear tries and fails; Lady Winter puts a sleeping blanket over him as well, and he falls into his own deep sleep in a cave. Ladybug tries and burns little black spots on her back while trying to hide from Lady Winter under some warm cinders. Skunk, initially stripe-less, tries and earns himself his tell-tale white back stripe when Lady Winter runs her hand across his back, creating “a band of snow-white frost…where it touched Skunk’s fur.” When Robin tries to trick Lady Winter and flies to the sun for some light for waking Sister Spring, you can see in the opening illustration how that goes — and how he gets his red breast. In fact, the entire narrative answers this question: Why do we never find a robin in Winter?<\/p>\n I love Nicoletta’s art something fierce. She captivates. Enjoy these few spreads, and I’ll close this Poetry Friday post with one of Ouellet’s poems about Queen Anne’s Laces, (which my mother once told me my grandmother used to love). I believe they tend to flower in June and continue on until October. That’s to say: They’re not so much Spring blooms. But in celebration of Spring’s arrival today and the flowers to-be-seen on into the Summer, we’ll take in Ouellet’s ode to Queen Anne’s Laces, originally published in Tickled by Thunder\u2019s Best of 2005<\/em>. <\/p>\n I hope that where you are it’s as warm and lovely as it is here, near Nashville. Daffodils. They’ve arrived! <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/robincovertouse.jpg\")
These illustrations today are from poet and author Debbie Ouellet’s<\/strong><\/a> new title, How Robin Saved Spring<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, to be released at the end of this month by Henry Holt, and I share this battle-of-the-seasons tale (in which Spring triumphs, of course — aw snap snap) in celebration of today, the first day of Spring. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/robinenew.jpg\")
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