Turn! Turn! Turn! (Book and CD)

by Pete Seeger

Book Overview

To ev'rything there is a season and a time for ev'ry purpose under heaven. For thousands of years Ecclesiastes' beautiful words have inspired and given solace to people all over the world. Pete Seeger... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689852355
• ISBN13: 9780689852350
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.8" x 12.2"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Detailed Artwork

This beautiful book is based on the Byrds song written by Pete Seeger which is based on Ecclesiastes 3. The illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin are wonderful. They are highly Westernized (or perhaps "New Yorkized" since there are apples in so many pictures). They show multiple images of life which give examples of the events named in Ecclesiastes 3 (e.g. born, die, cast away stones, gather stones). The book even includes an audio CD with performances of the song by the Byrds, and also by Pete Seeger (also lives in New York). Ecclesiastes uses three Hebrew words for "turn" for a total of sixteen occurrences. Qoheleth (the author) usually uses it in the sense, "I turned to consider..." (e.g. 2:11). He turns to consider life sixteen times until it seems he is spinning as much as the wind as it blows around its endless cycles (1:6). "Turn" is a very important word in Ecclesiastes. I don't know if Pete Seeger knew that when he wrote this song. Maybe Seeger was thinking of the seasons returning and turning from one activity to another. Halperin catches this idea beautifully by means of many circles. http://ofmakingblogsthereisnoend.blogspot.com/2008/11/turn-turn-turn.html

Saw it and had to have it!

Now that I have a two year old I can excuse myself for buying an illustrated book by saying it's for him, when in truth I want it. That said, he was looking at all the detailed pictures with me, and has already been asking for "Turn, Turn!" as one of his songs. So something hit the right note with my son. Personally, I was drawn to the appropriateness of the mandala-style illustrations to the text. (I laughed a little at the fact that a Seeger-type character appears in most of the illustrations.) The more I look at the book, the more I like it - for example, on the page that says "A time to plant, a time to reap," you see a panel with a man teaching a child to play guitar on the plant side, and on the reap side, an elderly man playing the guitar. Lots of things in the pictures to think about, and the sheet music in the back was a lovely surprise.

A lullaby of Byrdland

I first heard about the picture book, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" back in 2003 when I joined a mighty small and unofficial gathering of St. Paul/Minneapolis children's book enthusiasts for a mock Caldecott discussion. We were going to decide which books were most worthy of the Caldecott that year (though the obvious winner, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" swept it). One of those potential winners was a fairly interesting adaptation of what I had only ever known to be a Byrds song. Though credited in large part to Pete Seeger, no stranger to picture books himself, the words are originally from Ecclesiastes. Mr. Seeger gave them to a tune in 1961 and from there the Byrds turned it into a hit. Now it's a book for kids. In my experience, making a kid's book out of a 1960's song is usually a dangerous practice. Take a gander at, "At the Zoo" by Paul Simon if you don't believe me. In this particular case, illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin has given the design of the book an original feel. The result is a book that works far more often than it falls flat. You know the words, right? So sing along! "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven". The original verses speak of "a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away", so this adaptation does the same. The book begins with an open door leading to a grassy place. Turn the page and you see a large circle, one half on each page with the circle's center falling into the center gutter. On the left page is a verse like, "a time to be born". Here we see all sorts of images that illustrate this concept. On the right hand side are the words, "a time to die". Ditto, death is shown in a variety of different ways. This continues throughout the book with a multitude of different races, religions, people, animals, places, and things bringing home every verse. The pictures continue until you get to a final two-page spread with the words, "A time to love, a time to hate; a time for peace, I swear it's not too late". Here we see kids playing in what we can only assume is the grassy place glimpsed through the door on the first page. Children play and frolic and play chess (???) while a border of kids from all over the world (with different abilities and disabilities) make a half-circle over the page. There's also a nice little shot of Mr. Seeger himself, recognizable banjo in hand. The book comes with a note at the end of, "Suggestions for How to Use This Book", which talks about the song's history, but not (surprisingly) how to actually use the book in a class setting or one-on-one with a child. There's a lovely accompanying cd of the original song with two versions on it. One is Seeger's original and the other is the Byrds song we all know so well. The cd is a lovely touch and one that I wish more picture books would begin to include. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well with this kind of song. Usually cds are included wit

Wonderful book and CD set

This book's text is the famous song based on the verses from Ecclesiastes. The illustrations are full of interesting things to explore in repeated readings. There is a page at the end of the book that tells Seeger's story of how he wrote the song and how it was first recorded. The compact disc is a delight--it has Seeger's very simple, self-accompanied banjo rendition performed in concert, followed by the Byrd's rock rendition. I bought this for our Lutheran church library and I know the kids will enjoy it. My husband, a Jewish baby-boomer also got a big kick out of the compact disc. Enjoy!

2003 Notable Book, Association of Jewish Libraries!

This title was declared a 2003 Notable Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries! Almost 200 children's books of Judaic content were reviewed during the year to find the best of the bunch. Find out more at www.jewishlibraries.org.