Maria Gianferrari's Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice

Maria Gianferrari’s latest book takes the time to wonder about ice in all its forms. Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice, illustrated by Jieting Chen, features 11 poems about ice forming and melting.

How did you decide to make this a book of poetry? Did you try any other ways to write this book? 

I knew from the beginning that the book would have a poetic voice. In fact, the first poem to emerge was the frost one with these lines:

Frost ferns.

It swirls and curls.

Its fronds unfurl.

It binds and winds

Its feathery spines.

And it was inspired by this frost photo by editor at Lerner, Carol Hinz, who went on to acquire the book, and to whom it is dedicated.

Frost photo credit: Carol Hinz

As I researched and discovered fascinating ice forms, it became clear that individual poems that celebrated these various forms seemed the most fitting format. Then I came up with the idea of tying them together through a life cycle format, beginning and ending with “Ice is born,” so that it comes full circle.

I noticed the poems are split into two main sections – freshwater ice and sea ice. Why did you decide to organize it that way?

The main reason is that I wanted to distinguish them geographically: fresh ice can form in lakes and ponds and rivers and other water bodies anywhere it gets cold enough, but sea ice is only found in Arctic/Antarctic regions. When I first began researching, I didn’t quite appreciate the diversity of ice forms, especially with sea ice. It wasn’t really clear to me initially that icebergs and glaciers are actually formed from fresh water, so they’re not sea ice, but more “ice at sea.” I loved the fun sea ice names, like hummocks and bummocks, floebits and brinicles, and the equally whimsical fresh ones too, like cat ice and pancake ice (which also forms at sea).

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is a terrific resource for all things snow and ice. I loved poring over their amazing photographs. One can also read about all kinds of scientific research that’s being performed there and even examine data that has been collected.

You can learn some facts and basic snow and ice science from NSIDC here.

The art really brings the poems to life. Was there a process in working with Jieting Chen to make the art and words fit together?

Jieting really did an amazing job! She’s so talented! We didn’t work together initially, as is traditionally done in publishing—she came up with the color palette, shapes and various perspectives and angles. But then we went back and forth with expert Dr. John Cassano, a Lead Scientist at the NSIDC and a Professor in the University of Colorado/Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, to ensure that the text and art were scientifically accurate, then we did some back and forth edits to make the text and art flow as seamlessly as possible based on those updates. It was a very collaborative process.

Was there anything that surprised you when you were researching Ice Cycle?

Honestly, there were so many things! It was surprising how little I knew about ice, and how incredible it is from its crystal formations that are so temperature dependent and even substrate dependent. For example, hair ice, which are really thin, hair-like filaments form when water squeezes from the pores of rotten wood, but frost/ice flowers form on plant stems, and needle ice forms from the surface of soil. Such cool stuff!

Here's Jieting’s depiction of needle ice:

And here’s a photo I took in my yard:

This topic seems like a great starting point for some fun classroom activities. Do you have any activities you’d suggest to go along with the book?

I have a free e-source at Lerner’s website where there’s an ice spike experiment as well as a lesson on how to write a list poem. You can download that info here.

Check out the Activities and Resources page on my website for ICE CYCLE. There you’ll find a bunch of “cool” resources: watch a brinicle form; listen to ice talking, and watch ice crystals form.

You’ll also see the NPR Science Friday Spotlight, “Cool as Ice” which features recipes for making the perfect ice cube, refining your homemade ice cream recipe, and for making ice fruit pops as well as experiments for growing your own crystals and making snowflakes.

Author Maria Gianferrari

Illustrator Jieting Chen

Thank you, Maria, for taking the time to appreciate this aspect of nature and for sharing!