A River of Words

A River of Words; The Story of William Carlos Willams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
2009 Caldecott Honor Book

Ever since my son Jabu, now 10 years old, was little (like 3 or 4) he has loved picture book biographies. And I have loved them right along with him. Our children are adopted and African American (I am Japanese American-Russian American mixed, and my husband is European American). I used my sons interest in biographies to share lots of African American history with him. I don't know if there were as many great picture book biographies when I was little, but I sure didn't discover them if there were! I can honestly RAVE about many of them that I have read. It's just a part of the library worth spending time in!

OK, now to the book at hand! This is a picture book biography of the poet Willam Carlos Williams. I can DISTINCTLY remember being introduced to his poetry in a high school English class and loving it immediately. I can remember especially the poem:

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depend
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed  with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

******
I loved this poem! So I was excited to learn more about this poets life! He was a doctor. And a Dad. He wrote his poetry, several volumes of it, on top of all those other responsibilities, until the end of his life when he'd had some health difficulties that allowed him to curtail his medical career but still allowed him to write.

The illustrations in this book are a combination of drawings, paintings and collage. Many of the illustrations have his poetry embedded in them, either hand lettered or typewritten on an old fashioned typewriter. All in all a pleasing combination!

There is also a cool time line in the back of the book that has three columns, one for events of his life, one for the poems he published, and one for world events. It's amazing to think about the years his life spanned, from 1883 to 1963, going all the way from the first car to space capsules orbiting the earth .

I think older children (8 and up?) would be most likely to enjoy this book. I wouldn't hesitate to share it with my 10 year old.