Poetry for Kids: Carl Sandburg

by Carl Sandburg, Kathryn Benzel, Robert Crawford

Overview

Discover the poetry of Carl Sandburg in this installment of the Poetry for Kids series. Carefully chosen for kids, 35 poems are presented, illustrated, and explained by an expert.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633224254
Publisher:	Moondance Press
Publication date:	03/13/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	397,423
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Carl Sandburg was an American poet, biographer, and editor who won three Pulitzer Prizes (two for his poetry). Three of his most famous volumes of poetry include Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel. His poems are accessible and incredibly visual.

Kate Benzel, PhD, is a Carl Sandburg scholar and professor emerita at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she is currently transcribing and annotating Sandburg's early unpublished notebooks.

Robert Crawford is an illustrator and fine artist living in the northwest hills of Connecticut. He works in his own unique style, which he says influenced is by magic realism and the regionalism of post-World War II artists like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. His work has been on the cover of major magazines, including Fortune, Business Week, The Atlantic and U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. He has also illustrated four children's books, including T Is for Taj Mahal: An India Alphabet and The Legend of the Old Man of the Mountain.

Editorial Reviews

Once he bestrode the American scene like a colossus, but while plenty of his work remains in print, Carl Sandburg (18781967) is no longer much--or well--spoken of these days, especially as a poet. This new selection of his verse by two scholars, George and Willene Hendrick, who tracked down dozens of uncollected or unpublished Sandburg poems, may change that situation. It is superb, not a bum poem in it, even if one or another brings one up short with outdated slang or the use of the forbidden "n"-word (for the record, few white public figures have been ardenter champions of blacks than Sandburg). The Hendricks present 166 poems in sections reflecting Sandburg's concerns: "Chicago," "Lincoln," "African-Americans," "Love Poems," "Poems of Protest," etc. Sandburg's great inspiration was Whitman; no one else carried more of the tone and panhumanism of "Leaves of Grass" into the twentieth century than Sandburg. He was less spiritual and more political than Whitman, and his literary roots in urban reporting made for an imagery grittier, grayer, more documentary than Whitman's--an imagery, though, as striking, especially visually, as any that Sandburg's imagist peers--Amy Lowell, Pound, Williams--produced. Great stuff.

Ray Olson

'The poems are lively, vibrant and contemplative: full of alliteration and repetition, they are both entertaining and thought-provoking.' - The Guardian Best Books Guide 2017

"This collection would be an excellent resource for poetry studies or as a feature during National Poetry Month." - School Library Connection

A 2018 Notable Poetry Book for Children - National Council of Teachers of English

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
Gr 3 Up—This addition to the series, which began with Emily Dickinson, showcases the poetry of Carl Sandburg, the singing bard of America. Arranged in two categories, poems about people and places, the 36 free verse selections follow a brief biographical introduction by Benzel, who is noted for her work on the Sandburg Project: Prayers for the People. Acrylic illustrations are paired with the poems and are most effective when portraying the natural world. Least successful are Crawford's simplistic renderings, such as the letters that spell out the word soup in a bowl of broth, which accompany the poem of the same name. While much of the artwork is stunning, it depicts the surface layer of the poems without revealing any of the subtle imagery beneath. Many of Sandburg's classic poems, such as "Fog" and "Jazz Fantasia," can be found here. More complex pieces such as "Psalm of Those Who Go Forth Before Daylight" and "Sunset from Omaha Hotel Window" have been chosen instead of delightful nonsense poems such as "We Must Be Polite" or "Arithmetic," which seems odd in a volume meant for kids. Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg, edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin, is a more comprehensive overview that features some of Sandburg's nonsense poetry. Benzel's book is best suited for reading aloud. A table of contents and an index of first lines are also included. VERDICT A weaker offering than Susan Snively's Emily Dickinson (the first title in the series), though it is an acceptable, additional purchase for those wanting to update their poetry collections.—Rachel Zuffa, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal