Cataract of Lodore [Hardcover]

Robert Southey (Author)

Book Description

At the request of his children, the author creates a descriptive poem evoking the sound and feel of water that flows on its way to a famous waterfall at Lodore in England.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Southey's 19th-century poem describing the nature of his children's favorite waterfall splashes along swimmingly in this picture book rendition. Water and lily pads have already begun spilling down the staircase as Southey settles into his armchair to recite his rhyme. And seemingly unbeknownst to the concentrating poet, he, the three youngsters and the family dog sail downstream through perilous swells and around treacherous bends before landing safely in their backyard. Catrow's ink-and-watercolor illustrations blend the precise amounts of humor, adventure and danger to match the poem's rushing pace. The wide-eyed children and the dog with his hair standing on end continuously amuse with their various postures as they follow the water's "pouring and roaring and waving and raving and tossing and crossing" course. With rusticity rapidly giving way to aquatic antics, this energetic interpretation is somewhat more slapsticky than Mordicai Gerstein's larky setting of the poem (Children's Forecasts, Nov. 8, 1991). Both versions splendidly render this period work accessible to contemporary readers. Ages 6-8.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-- A good poet overshadowed by great ones (his brother-in-law, Coleridge, and his neighbor, Wordsworth), Southey is remembered--if at all--for "The Battle of Blenheim," over a century ahead of its time. Few realize that he introduced "The Three Bears" and wrote over 40 volumes of poetry and prose. Perhaps this volume will send editors and illustrators scurrying after his copyright-free stuff, because it is a jolly romp of a winner: it dances, it sings. The poem brings the cataract (waterfall) alive, moving from dactyl dimeter "It runs through the reeds . . .," picking up speed in trimeter, "And sounding and bounding and rounding . . .," and catapulting into tetrameter, "And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing . . ." imitating its subject. Gerstein does sparkling cartoons in brilliant, frothy colors. When the rhyme and the cataract gather force and speed up, the characters tumble down vertical double-page spreads. Children will enjoy turning the book to follow the falls. Everyone should enjoy this; it's fun to read aloud, fun to look at, and teachers who are stuck with Poe and Vachel Lindsay when teaching onomatopoeia will find it a welcome relief. --Helen Gregory, Grosse Pointe Public Library, MI
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holth & Co (J); 1st edition (May 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805019456
• ISBN-13: 978-0805019452
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,597,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wordy Poetry, July 27, 2004

By 

Allison Wiener "teachergrl" (Medina, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cataract of Lodore (Hardcover)

Of course, poetry is all words and pictures in your mind... but my opinion is that young children will have trouble with this book simply because it uses words like "moreover," "anon," "laureate," "vocation," and many others that most adults would have to look up in a dictionary to fully understand.

One deliciously clever part of this book is that the text changes as the water flows over a waterfall. (You have to turn the book to read it, as the waterfall goes across the pages from left to right and the words are turned sideways to follow the flow!

If you're looking for a beautifully descriptive poem with lots of old English language, this is perfect. The illustrations are lovely and the poem itself is wonderful... but children may need quite a bit of explanation and assistance if they were to read or listen to this book.

As a teacher, I'd say a practical use might be to give sections of this poem to children (older grades) and have them practice their context clue and dictionary skills to figure out what the words mean.