Birches - Hardcover

Frost, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805005706 ISBN 13: 9780805005707

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1988

Synopsis

An illustrated version of the well-known poem about birch trees and the pleasures of climbing them

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is this country's best-loved poet. His work epitomizes the American affinity for plain speaking, nature, and the land.

Ed Young was born in China and spent his childhood in Shanghai. The illustrator of many books for children, he has received numerous awards, including a Caldecott Honor. Ed Young lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Ted Rand has illustrated many books for children, including Knots on a Counting Rope, Here Are My Hands, and Barn Dance! He and his wife, writer Gloria Rand, live on Mercer Island in Washington State.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3 Up Frost's spare phrases conjure up vividly concrete mental pictures which are not reflected in Young's lovely, but often abstracted and incongruent, watercolors. In double-page spreads above the cream band that contains the few lines of text per page, Young's flowing atmospheric washes catch the New England landscape in all seasons and moods, but neither their sweeps and splotches nor their impressionistic shapes that blur into precision get across that crucial central image of the bend of those trees toward earth. Their perspective is sophisticated and does convey something of the climb and descent imagery, but as a whole, the paintings provide a musical background rather than illumination of the poem. A literal interpretation isn't necessary, or perhaps even desirable, but there should be some congruence between art and text; and these softly frenzied abstractions tend to be disconcerting and dissonant. The full-color (but with an autumnal cast) pictures stand back; while adults may appreciate the non-interference with the text, children will find it distancing. The complete poem is reprinted at the end of the book, offering an intriguing contrast to seeing it page by page and illustrated. A Swinger of Birches (Stemmer House, 1982), a collection of 38 Frost poems for young people, illustrated by Peter Koeppen, is much less dramatic artistically, but a better straightforward introduction to the poetry. Susan Jeffers' illustrations for the picture book edition of ``Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'' (Dutton, 1978) offer a better example of expansion of the text without contradiction or confusion. Nancy Palmer, The Little School, Bellevue, Wash.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0805005706
• ISBN 13: 9780805005707
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Young Ed