From Publishers Weekly
"My sister Emily was buried today," begins this wisp of a picture book, part thumbnail biography and part miniature poetry anthology. For the next several pages, a mournful Lavinia reminisces about her reclusive sister ("Emily never went anywhere. Townsfolk thought her strange"), roots through her dresser ("Here are the dresses she wore only white in summer and winter") and ultimately discovers a cache of poems ("There must be hundreds!"). The remainder of the book offers up a selection of Dickinson's best-known and perhaps most approachable work, beginning with "This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me " and including "There is no Frigate like a Book/ To take us Lands away" and "I'm Nobody! Who are you?/ Are you Nobody Too?" Verses about nature predominate ("A Spider sewed at Night/ Without a Light/ Upon an Arc of White"), but Winter does not shy away from more metaphysical themes ("Exultation is the going/ Of an inland soul to sea,/ Past the houses past the headlands / Into deep Eternity "). With her trademark folk art style, Winter demurely dresses the pages in shades of lavenders, periwinkle and soft green. The scanty biographical information may leave the curious wanting more, but this is nevertheless a visually pleasing introduction to Dickinson and her work. Pair this with Elizabeth Spires's The Mouse of Amherst for a more complete picture of the poet. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grades 2-5--The reclusive American poet is revealed through 21 of her poems in this small-format picture book. Told from the point of view of her sister Lavinia, who discovered almost 1800 of Dickinson's precious poems after her death, the story provides only snippets of the poet's enigmatic life: her refusal to leave the family's Amherst home, her fanatical love of words, and her dying as a virtual unknown. However, the selection of poems-Emily's "letters"-gives insight into her thoughts on a variety of topics, ranging from nature ("Snowflakes") to the secrets of the heart ("Have you got a Brook in your little heart-") to her distaste at the thought of fame ("I'm Nobody! Who are you?"). Winter's paintings use all-white backgrounds to illustrate the facts of her story, but when readers step into the world of Dickinson's imaginative mind and intense poetic spirit, the illustrator switches to color-filled backgrounds, with the full or partial figure of the poet ever-present. Here the strong images of the subjects of the poems clearly take precedence, and, as with Winter's illustrations in Follow the Drinking Gourd (Knopf, 1992), her simplistic style manages to accentuate the depth behind the words. Naturally, these gems beg to be read aloud, and they are sure to provoke discussions about their meaning and the powerful images they suggest. Pair this title with Michael Bedard's Emily (Doubleday, 1992) for a fuller introduction to this brilliant poet.
Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RICopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
