Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet

by Carl Sandburg and Penelope Niven

Book Overview

Hobo. Soldier. Reporter. Musician. Husband and father. Storyteller. Historian. Carl Sandburg was all of these things. But he distinguished himself above all as the Poet of the People, a traveler and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152046860
• ISBN13: 9780152046866
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.7" x 11.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

Educators Recommend

In this biography of Carl Sandburg, Penelope Niven draws on her considerable knowledge of the poet to create a first-rate presentation. (Niven is the author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography as well as the founder and director the National Carl Sandburg Oral History Project.) The book proceeds in chronological fashion. Each double-page section juxtaposes biographical information (on the left) with one of Sandburg's poems or a prose selection (on the right). This has the effect of making the poems and prose more personal, more meaningful. In the section titled "Soldier," for example, Niven discusses Sandburg's participation in the Spanish-American War. He and fellow soldiers had to wade "ashore in deep water, dressed in hot wool uniforms left over from the Civil War." On the facing page we read the poignant "New Feet": Empty battlefields keep their phantoms. Grass crawls over old gun wheels And nodding Canada thistle flings a purple Into the summer's southwest wind, Wrapping a root in the rust of a bayonet, Reaching a blossom in the rust of shrapnel. Marc Nadel's watercolor-and-crosshatch illustrations are beautifully done, historically accurate, and the perfect compliment to Niven's text. According to the "Illustration Notes," Sandburg's personal possessions are featured in the artwork. Carl Sandburg was a multifaceted individual: a journalist, a family man, a storyteller, an historian, and a dreamer. Niven does an extraordinary job of bringing to life America 's "Poet of the People." Highly recommended. Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff