Seasons: A Book of Poems - Hardcover

Zolotow, Charlotte

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060266988 ISBN 13: 9780060266981

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 2002

Synopsis

An easy reader captures the feelings of children as they experience the beauty of each season through lyrical words and gentle pen-and-ink illustrations.

About this title

About the Author:

Charlotte Zolotow is a revered name in children's literature. She is a prolific, much-honored author with over seventy titles published, including the classic Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present,illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and the groundbreaking William's Doll, illustrated by William Péne du Bois.

In addition, she has been a distinguished editor and publisher (she is now a HarperCollins Publisher Emerita), and by extension, an innovative educator. Her editorial career began under the brilliant Ursula Nordstrom, publisher of Harper Children's Books. The two shared a passionate belief: that children's books should be honest and faithful to the sometimes difficult but always intensely felt experiences of childhood. They were certain that children were capable of understanding the best work gifted artists and writers could give them.

Charlotte Zolotow was born in 1915 in Norfolk, Virginia, but grew up in several cities, including Detroit, New York, and Boston. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and shortly afterward returned to New York, where in 1938 she began working at HarperCollins, then Harper & Brothers.

She started as a secretary, but moved into an editorial career, working with Ursula Nordstrom. Their shared beliefs and the excitement of working with fine writers and artists brought to Harper generations of extraordinary authors and illustrators and gave Harper Children's Books their fresh, innovative quality. Talent was nurtured; books of lasting value were created, many still loved and read decades after they were first published. As Jean Mercier wrote in Publishers Weekly, Charlotte Zolotow would be among the Who's Who of any age, not only as the author of books of her own, but as a force majeure behind many children's books on the distinctive list of Harper.

Charlotte Zolotow has received numerous awards and honors, including the Regina Medal (2002) presented by the Catholic Library Association, the University of Minnesota's Irwin Kerlan Award (1986), the University of Southern Mississippi's Silver Medallion (1990), the Christopher Award (1974), and the Harper Gold Medal for Outstanding Editorial Achievement (1974). Of ongoing significance is the award established in 1998 in her name by the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Charlotte Zolotow Award, presented annually by the University's Cooperative Center for Children's Books, is given annually to the author of the best picture book text published in the United States in the preceding year.

The 1991 resolution of gratitude given to Charlotte Zolotow by the American Library Association calls her contribution to children's literature far reaching. That reach extends far indeed. It begins with the many books she has written carry her vision into the hearts of children past, present, and future.

She has written more than seventy books for young children, many of which -- have become picture-book classics.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-Two old favorites strut their signature stuff in this collection for somewhat-beyond beginning readers. Divided into the four seasons, Zolotow's 40 poems, often in a child's first-person voice, are brief (4-17 lines), evocative reflections on and responses to the natural world, but they also tap feelings that children experience regardless of the season. "I'm mad at my mother and she at me"; "It's no fun days I've done something mean." The large type and short lines, the leading, the choice of words, and the lyrical repetition all make the text inviting to independent readers. Using concrete language and images for the most part, the poems occasionally venture into the abstract: "a message in another language spoken to a part of me who hasn't happened yet," which may extend their appeal to somewhat older children. Featuring youngsters in charming country settings, Blegvad's precise ink drawings are washed with a delicate full-color palette and reinforce the quiet, thoughtful mood of the selections. The winsome (if a bit generic) children are by turns pensive, inquisitive, joyous, or secretly smiling. There are several other collections of seasonal poetry available, of course, but none so attractively designed with early readers and their emotional world in mind.
Nancy Palmer, The Little School, Bellevue, WA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060266988
• ISBN 13: 9780060266981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64
• Illustrator: Blegvad Erik