Poetry for Kids: Walt Whitman

by Walt Whitman, Karen Karbiener, Kate Evans

Overview

Introduce children to the work of celebrated American poet Walt Whitman! Carefully chosen for kids, 35 illustrated poems are presented and explained by a Whitman expert.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633224339
Publisher:	Moondance Press
Publication date:	05/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a celebrated American poet, chiefly known for his controversial and highly original poetry collection Leaves of Grass. Born in 1819 on Long Island, he worked as a journalist, teacher, government clerk, and volunteer nurse during the Civil War. Whitman published his seminal work in 1855 with his own money, soon becoming one of the world’s most popular and influential poets. After suffering a stroke in 1873 he retired to Camden, New Jersey, where he died nineteen years later—just two months after the final edition of Leaves of Grass appeared on sale.
 

Karen Karbiener is a Whitman scholar at New York University. She has published widely on Whitman's life and work, and edited Leaves of Grass: First and Death-bed Editions for Barnes & Noble Classics. She is a recognized public scholar and has been featured in radio, television, and online programs, authored two audio books on Whitman's cultural legacy, and hosts New York City's annual "Song of Myself" Marathon. She lives in New York City.

Freelance illustrator and fine artist Kate Evans has worked for many high-profile clients, including Random House, HarperCollins, V and A Magazine,The Guardian, and National Geographic. Her illustrations have been published in many countries around the world.Combining delicate line drawings with watercolor washes, Kate produces images that reflect the richness of their subject matter. Her illustrations suggest subtle emotional states and have been frequently used by publishers to capture the complexity of particular places and situations.

Editorial Reviews

"Weds top-notch scholarship with visual artistry....affording readers the rare pleasure of seeing Whitman's seemingly endless lines run clear across the page, unenjambed as he intended....this dynamic volume proves a seminal addition to any library."—Kirkus Reviews - Kirkus Reviews

'Reveals the political and social atmosphere of nineteenth-century America. Whitman's poetry speaks across the decades and seems very pertinent to our world today. His poetry fosters the ideas of equality, tolerance and love for our fellow humans ' - The Guardian Best Books Guide 2017

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

From the Publisher

2017-05-01
The third installment in the hard-core Poetry for Kids series again weds top-notch scholarship with visual artistry in introducing children to the poetic wonders of another American treasure: Walt Whitman. Here, Whitman scholar Karbiener (Liberal Studies, New York Univ.) and illustrator Evans harmoniously capture the immediacy of Whitman's verse, and perhaps in no other instance does this series' 8-inch-wide format serve better, affording readers the rare pleasure of seeing Whitman's seemingly endless lines run clear across the page, unenjambed as he intended. In her preface, Karbiener explains that she seeks to provide a rough biographical sketch of Whitman, fleshed out in endnotes. For example, "Come Up from the Fields Father" depicts the moment a family receives the news its only son has been injured in battle: "O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd; / O a strange hand writes for our dear son—O stricken mother's soul!" Karbiener's notes on the poem describe how that "strange hand" often belonged to Whitman, who, as a volunteer during the Civil War, "wrote hundreds of letters that briefed families on soldiers' conditions." Evans' deeply expressive earth-toned watercolors match both the poet's exacting attention to detail and his proclivity for cataloging vast states of nature and cityscapes. Though Whitman's sophisticated 19th-century vocabulary may tax today's youth, this dynamic volume proves a seminal addition to any library. (glossed terms in margins) (Picture book/poetry. 10-16)

Kirkus Reviews