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Home Education Magazine
May-June 1998 - Columns
So Many Books
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Joan Torklidosn
Poetry for Young People, Grassroots, The Butterfly Book,
Farley Mowat Reader, The Birthday Number Books
Poetry for Young People
Poetry for Young People (series), various editors and illustrators, Sterling Publishing, $14.95 hardcover, ages 9-12
Having planned on introducing my kids to Dickinson, Poe, and Whitman this year, I was delighted to stumble upon this beautifully designed series. These books are perfect for introducing young readers to the marvels and mysteries of great poetry.
Each book begins with a lengthy introduction, filled with lots of detail about the poet's life. In the Emily Dickinson book (published in 1995; ISBN 0-8069-0635-9) the introduction reveals that "her nose was in a book almost every spare moment" and that she considered books her best company. Readers are then directed to the well-known poem which begins: "There is no frigate like a book/To take us lands away..." The editor of this volume, Frances Schoonmaker Bolin, has wisely added footnotes here and there, which explain the meaning of words such as frigate, coursers, and dominie.
This particular volume features more than 35 of Emily Dickinson's best- loved poems, all gorgeously illustrated by Chi Chung. Latest addition to the series is a book on Walt Whitman (1997; ISBN 0-8069-9530-0). The other books in the series focus on the poetry of Carl Sandburg, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Frost.
Grassroots
Grassroots, by Carl Sandburg, illus. by Wendell Minor, Harcourt Brace, Mar. 1998, ISBN 0-15-200082-8, $18.00 hardcover, all ages
Here's a fine book of illustrated poetry by the man who has been hailed by many as America's "national poet." It's an appropriate selection for this year, since 1998 marks the 120th anniversary of Sandburg's birth.
The book is in essence an evocatively rendered tribute to America's heartland (both Sandburg and illustrator Wendell Minor were born in Illinois). The selected poems - over a dozen in all - collectively present a vast panorama of familiar Midwestern images: red barns, long-gone buffaloes, rosy sunsets, crickets, summer grass, Holstein cows, yellow corn, wild crabapples. Minor's beautiful paintings take up either a full half-page (with the poem on the facing page) or a double-page spread (with the poem set into the painting itself). They are a lovely accompaniment to Carl Sandburg's moving passages about the ordinary yet unforgettable American landscape.
The Butterfly Book
The Butterfly Book: A Kid's Guide to Attracting, Raising, and Keeping Butterflies, by Kersten Hamilton, John Muir Publications, 1997, ISBN 1-56261-309-X, $7.95 paperback, about 8-up
The no-nonsense subtitle says it all. All the information you need to attract, raise, and keep butterflies is packed into one slim (40-page), expertly organized book.
The first section, accompanied by both illustrations and photographs, offers detailed information about the butterfly's life cycle, anatomy, and behavior. The next section delves into the nitty-gritty of attracting butterflies to your yard, patio, or windowsill. Here you'll learn how to make a butterfly puddle, a fast-food restaurant for butterflies, a caterpillar cafe and corral, a butterfly tent trap, a hunter's kit, and a butterfly net. (Note: Most of these activities are a lot simpler than they sound.) Along with suggestions on where to find butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises, you'll even find directions for mending a butterfly's broken wing.
An ongoing Butterfly Guide, appearing as sidebars at the end of each page, will help readers with identification. Under each butterfly photograph are illustrations of its caterpillar and larval food plant, as well as a zone map that shows where the butterfly can be found.
The book contains a glossarized index (an alphabetically arranged list of terms and their definitions, followed by page numbers in boldface) and a resource guide that will show you where to order caterpillars through the mail, where to get butterfly nets and other neat stuff, and where to find butterflies on the World Wide Web. I have a feeling that once my kids get their hands on this book, we'll be stalking butterflies this summer.
A Farley Mowat Reader
A Farley Mowat Reader, edited by Wendy Thomas, illus. by Richard Row, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Nov. 1997, ISBN 1-57098-175-2, $24.95 hardcover, about 10-up
The Foreword to this book, written by Farley Mowat, is almost the best part of the whole book. Here's the first paragraph: "When I was your age I didn't exactly drool with delight if someone gave me a book entitled The Something-or-Other Reader. Frankly, it put me off. It sounded too much like work - like schoolwork of the kind my teachers thought was good for me. However, a book was something I couldn't really resist, so I used to paste tape over that awful word "Reader;" and then I could enjoy with a clear conscience. If it had been me, I'd have called this book Farley's Follies."
So call this book Farley's Follies if you wish - but don't miss this terrific anthology. To those readers who are already familiar with Mowat's writing, this book will be an unexpected treat. To those who haven't yet discovered this wonderful Canadian writer, the book will serve as a great introduction.
All the pieces in this collection were selected from works that Farley Mowat has had published over his 45-year-old career. Most of the chapters feature selections from at least a couple of different books. The chapter "Mutt" contains excerpts from both The Dog Who Wouldn't Be and Mowat's autobiography, Born Naked. The chapter entitled "The Others" contains selections from Born Naked, Owls in the Family, Never Cry Wolf, and A Whale for the Killing.
Much of this book focuses on Mowat's interest in "non-human animals" ("the Others"). Making frequent appearances are Mowat's unusual animal companions: his two pet owls, Wol and Weeps, a big, gray ground squirrel named McPhail, and an unforgettable dog simply named Mutt, who wore goggles while riding in the car (long story) and "carried with him the aura of a Don Quixote."
Mowat's adventures (and misadventures) are another important part of the book. As a young man he was hired by the government to study wolves in the Keewatin Barren Lands; from his experiences Never Cry Wolf was born. Other selections describe sailing adventures and his first trip to the Arctic. The final chapter, "Becoming a Writer," traces the development of Mowat's writing with selections gleaned from two of his memoirs, Born Naked and My Father's Son.
Richard Row's black-and-white illustrations, which resemble old- fashioned woodcuts, wonderfully enhance this unique anthology. Readers who are eager for more after reading this collection will want to consult the long list of books written by Farley Mowat, which appears at the end of the book.
The Birthday Number Books
The Birthday Number Books: Amazing Facts about Numbers, by Kitty Higgins and Karin Snelson, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Jan. 1998, $6.95 hardcover, ages 1-10
These are nifty, colorful little birthday books that come equipped with a host of interesting tidbits about the numbers one through ten. The six-year-old's book (The Super Number Six; ISBN 0-8362-3219-4) explores facts related to the number six - a honeycomb cell, snowflakes, guitar strings, the pockets of a pool table, insect legs, hexagons, hockey teams, and more. Among the topics explored in The Tremendous Number 10 (ISBN 0-8362-3221-6) are decades, squid arms, bowling pins, the Olympic Decathlon, and the Richter scale (which is based on units of ten).
Some nice features: the books can be customized (there's a cardboard frame on the inside back cover, into which the birthday child's picture can be slipped), and the text and art in each book grow increasingly more sophisticated with each age level.
Worth Checking Out
- In March Scholastic released two new books in their exceptional Dear America series (reviewed in Jul/Aug 1997 HEM). The new titles are Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl by Kathryn Lasky, and West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi by Jim Murphy.
- The March/April issue of Horn Book Magazine is a special theme issue on picture books. Articles cover various aspects of picture book creation, including illustration, text, design, technology, trends, and history. The bimonthly Horn Book Magazine has been the nation's premier children's literature journal since 1924. Single copies are $8.50. Contact: The Horn Book, Inc., 11 Beacon St., Suite 1000, Boston, MA 02108, 1-800-325-1170.
- Click is a new magazine aimed at beginning readers ages 3-7. The bimonthly magazine is published by The Cricket Magazine Group, the company that also produces Muse, Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, and Babybug. The premiere issue (Jan. 1998) investigates camouflage, magnifying glasses, microscopes, and binoculars via a colorful blend of stories, poems, illustrations, and photography. Each issue also contains an eight-page Parents Guide and a six-page fold-out poster. Available in bookstores and by subscription (1-800-827-0227).
© 1998 Joan Torkildson
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