When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer - Hardcover

Whitman, Walt; Loren Long

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689863977 ISBN 13: 9780689863974

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004

Synopsis

Leave time for wonder.
Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is an enduring celebration of the imagination. Here, Whitman's wise words are beautifully recast by New York Times #1 best-selling illustrator Loren Long to tell the story of a boy's fascination with the heavens. Toy rocket in hand, the boy finds himself in a crowded, stuffy lecture hall. At first he is amazed by the charts and the figures. But when he finds himself overwhelmed by the pontifications of an academic, he retreats to the great outdoors and does something as universal as the stars themselves...
he dreams.

About this title

About the Author

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), arguably one of America's most influential and innovative poets, was born into a working-class family in West Hills, New York, and grew up in Brooklyn. His Leaves of Grass, from which "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" comes, is considered one of the central volumes in the history of world poetry. While most other major writers of his time enjoyed a highly structured, classical education at private institutions, Whitman forged his own rough and informal curriculum, and his brief stint at teaching suggests that Whitman employed what were then progressive techniques -- encouraging students to think aloud rather than simply recite, and involving his students in educational games.

Loren Long illustrated President Barack Obama’s Of Thee I Sing; the newest version of The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper; Madonna’s second picture book, Mr. Peabody’s Apples; Nightsong by Ari Berk; Frank McCourt’s Angela and the Baby Jesus; Love by Matt de la Peña; and If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano. He also wrote and illustrated the Otis series and was part of the Design Garage for Jon Scieszka’s Trucktown series. Loren’s work has appeared in Time, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He lives with his wife and two sons in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit him at LorenLong.com.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. When last we saw Long's gorgeous acrylic paintings, they were singing backup for Madonna in Mr. Peabody's Apples (2003). Now the artist turns his attention to another era's brash individualist. Unlike this season's biography of Walt Whitman by Barbara Kerley, reviewed on p.577, Long's story-in-images makes a fine introduction for very young children. His interpretation of Whitman's eight-line rebuke of stuffy pragmatism tells a familiar story: A little boy obsessed with outer space has been dragged to an astronomy lecture. Unable to make sense of the speaker's pontifications, the fidgety youngster takes his toy rocket ship outside, where he marvels at the "perfect silence of the stars, casting a decisive vote for creative speculation over chilly analysis." The painterly artwork, as controlled as the logical, grown-up world it portrays, gets its own injection of childlike wonder through playful doodles contributed by Long's two children, and it's so convincingly reproduced that many scribble-wary librarians will do a double take. Although the brooding tone of both the poem and the art makes this a less carefree entree to transcendentalism than D. B. Johnson's Henry Hikes to Fitchburg (1999), children will easily relate to the boy's crushing boredom, while adults will smile at the parents' overzealous efforts to nourish his passions. Jennifer Mattson
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About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0689863977
• ISBN 13: 9780689863974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Long Loren