Heartland - Hardcover

Siebert, Diane

4.13

45 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0690047304 ISBN 13: 9780690047301

Publisher: HarperColl, 1989

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Here, in their second stunning collaboration, Diane Siebert and Wendell Minor create a joyful, singing celebration of this country's Heartland, the Midwest. It is a land where wheat fields grow and cornfields stretch across the plains to create a patchwork quilt in hues of yellow, green, and brown; a land where herds of cattle graze in pastures draped in lush, green grass, and a newborn calf stands in the sun.

And upon this land toils the farmer, strong and proud, whose weathered face tells a tale of a life of work that's never done. The Heartland -- a land where, despite man's power, nature reigns.

1989 Children's Editors' Choices (BL)
Notable 1989 Childrens' Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)
1990 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)
Favorite Paperbacks for 1994 (IRA/CBC)

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About the Author:

Diane Siebert is the author of Mojave, a 1988 Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, a 1988 Notable Children’s Trade Book in Social Studies, and a 1989 Teachers Choice, and Heartland , a 1989 Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, a 1989 Notable Children’s Trade Book in Social Studies, and a 1990 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts. Ms. Siebert lives at Crooked River Ranch, Oregon.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-4-- A hymn to the American farmer, to whom Siebert dedicates the book. Her poetry sings the praises of the landscape of the Great Plains, including the malevolence of nature and the human spirit which works against it to bring the land into fruition. In blank verse, the sentiment is reminiscent of Carl Sandburg on Chicago. The scenes on each page are isolated, grouped around the passing seasons, with special attention to summer, when the farmer's efforts on the landscape are most obvious. For all of the attention just given to the verse, the pictures are what dominate the book. With Edward Hopper realism, the watercolor double-page spreads, each framed with a black line, have photographic immediacy to them. On the one hand, they catalogue small-town life, complete with antique storefronts of the 1920s and 1930s; on the other hand, the cars parked out front are clearly late models. The pictures are striking and arresting. But the cow and nursing calf featured as the penultimate picture and on the back cover signal what is wrong with this book. It is an idealization and romanticization of a way of life that does not exist and never did. The pictures feature clean farms with never a flake of cracked paint, cows without manure, amber waves with never a lighting insect on them. The book takes itself very seriously, with its finely crafted pictures and poetry, but it's all so perfect--even the tornadoes--that it's hard to take the whole effect seriously. A book with such beautiful pictures is fascinating, but the glib glossiness with which the midwest is presented is just not realistic. --Ruth K. MacDonald, Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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