Hiawatha

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Susan Jeffers (Illustrator)

Overview

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editor's Choice
 
Rich in imagery and detail, this exquisitely rendered picture book introduces readers to one of America's favorite classic poems, "The Song of Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Illustrated by Susan Jeffers, the Caldecott-Honor winning author of Three Jovial Huntsmen, A Mother Goose Rhyme, this book beautifully weaves together oral traditions of American Indian culture and presents a charming and hypnotic account of Hiawatha’s boyhood.
 
“Exquisite, detailed illustrations grace this picture book which presents the part of Longfellow's stirring poem dealing with Hiawatha's boyhood and his relationship to his grandmother, who teaches him about the ways of animals and the forces of nature. The illustrator's careful research on flora and fauna and woodland Indian culture is evident. Some of the poem's background is explained in a note at the beginning. This is truly a picture book for all ages.”—Children's Literature (emphasis added)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140558821
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/01/1996
Series:	Puffin Pied Piper
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	405,291
Product dimensions:	9.44(w) x 12.06(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was the most popular and admired American poet of the nineteenth century. Born in Portland, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College, Longfellow’s ambition was always to become a writer; but until mid-life his first profession was the teaching rather than the production of literature, at his alma mater (1829-35) and then at Harvard (1836-54). His teaching career was punctuated by two extended study-tours of Europe, during which Longfellow made himself fluent in all the major Romance and Germanic languages. Thanks to a fortunate marriage and the growing popularity of his work, from his mid-thirties onwards Longfellow, ensconced in a comfortable Cambridge mansion, was able to devote an increasingly large fraction of his energies to the long narrative historical and mythic poems that made him a household word, especially Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863, 1872, 1873). Versatile as well as prolific, Longfellow also won fame as a writer of short ballads and lyrics, and experimented in the essay, the short story, the novel, and the verse drama. Taken as a whole, Longfellow’s writings show a breadth of literary learning, an understanding of western languages and cultures, unmatched by any American writer of his time.

Susan Jeffers is the illustrator of such distinguished picture books as Three Jovial Huntsmen, a Caldecott Honor book; Rachel Field's Hitty; and the ABBY Award-winning Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, which was also a New York Times besteller. She lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

The creator of this pop-up version of the classic epic poem should be commended for a well-intentioned effort, but the result is only somewhat palatableneither the paper engineering nor the realistic watercolor pictures can stand up to Longfellow's shimmering language. While a picture book version could have made the poem more accessible, this has only six spreads because of the production limitations. The pop-ups do not illuminate the poem for young readers, and older children may shy away from the format. All ages. (April)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5 Up Six excerpts from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha are illustrated with double-page pop-up illustrations. The pale watercolors do little more than create a static three-dimensional scene, pleasant enough but offering little additional illumination to the text. The pallid illustrations do not reflect the mood of the texta misty birch forest and a blue heron, for example, accompany ``Dark behind it rose the forest/ Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees.'' Longfellow's epic deserves more serious attention than this toy book. Kathleen Whalin, Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County, Reynoldsburg, Ohio

School Library Journal

For many readers, William Hootkins's reading of Longfellow's classic nineteenth-century poem will evoke memories of elementary or middle school. Longfellow's extended narrative is set in a regular, easily recognized rhythm. This rhythm guides Hootkins's delivery, as this is more of a performance than a simple reading. He powerfully underscores the moments of import, giving the impression of a traditional storyteller revisiting a familiar piece. The one weakness in Hootkins's performance may come from matching Longfellow's poetry too closely. At times, the poem seems to drive on in the same vein for too long, with too many attempts at peak moments. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

DEC 05/JAN 06 - AudioFile