Customer Reviews

Emily

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of Emily Dickinson is a wonderful way to introduce students to a great poet in a poet profile lesson. Beautifully illustrated and told simply, yet powerfully, this is one book that will enlighten children to think not only about the poet, but also about the relationships, or friendships that children may have with a special adult (i.e., teacher or grandparent )An excellent gift for children and adults.

"There is a woman on our street they call the Myth. She lives with her sister in the yellow house across the road. Her room is the one up on the left at the front. If you stand on tiptoe, you can see it peeping over the high hedge as you pass. She hasn't left her house in nearly twenty years. If strangers come to call, she runs and hides herself away. Some people say she's crazy. But to me she's Emily..." When our young narrator's mother is invited to cross the street and play the piano for the elusive Emily, the little girl can't wait to accompany her. Emily is nowhere to be seen, but Mother sits and nervously begins to play. "When Mother stopped she turned to me. A sound of clapping rippled down the stairs, and then a small voice like a little girl's. "Dear friend, you put the robin's song to shame. Play more. Already I can feel the spring." As her mother continues, the little girl creeps up the winding stairs to investigate, and at the bend at the top, finds a small woman dressed in white, sitting and listening to the beautiful music from below. From her pocket, our narrator takes out two lily bulbs. "I brought you some spring...If you plant them they will turn to lilies." Quickly Emily dashed off some words on a scrap of paper and handed it to her guest. "Hide this away, as I will hide your gift to me. Perhaps in time they both will bloom." And so as spring arrived, so did the lilies, and a young girl's special poem from Emily Dickinson..... Michael Bedard has captured the quiet and intriguing reclusive nature of Emily Dickinson in his well researched historical story. "In writing this book, I went to Amherst to visit the house where she lived. I sat in the parlor with the piano, visited the room where she wrote. I stood beneath her window and she lowered this story to me." His simple, eloquent, and engaging text transports the reader back in time to nineteenth century Amherst, Massachusetts, to spend an afternoon with Emily Dickinson. You can almost hear the piano drifting up the stairs, and the scratches of her pen as Emily dashes off a poem. Barbara Cooney's beautifully evocative oil paintings are rich in period detail, and complement the text with their quiet settings. With an Afterword to complete and enhance the story, Emily is truly a masterpiece of word and art, and a fascinating story that shouldn't be missed.

This short glimpse of Emily Dickenson, through the eyes of a neighbor child, is kind, gentle and quietly poetic. My daughter, almost seven, gives it a thumbs up. I like it because it tells a nice story of human interaction, allowing for discussion of how people can be different and yet wonderful. It's pictorial illustrations lend detail to the story, and draw the young reader in. What poetry is exactly is a central theme. A nice book to read to a child, or for an older child to read alone.

The beauty's in the telling, and even more in the not-telling: "The road was full of mud and mirrors..." Thanks, Michael Bedard, for not talking down to children, and for an explanation of poetry that any child or adult would be better for hearing. Gorgeous prose without the overblown cloying sentiment of so many children's books.

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up for my children. At first reading, I was concerned that it was a ghost story, which might be a little too scary for my three year old. I was delightfully surprised that it is more of a mystery, with a little girl (the narrator) discovering Emily Dickinson in the house across the street. Barbara Cooney's slightly primitive paintings are a wonderful accompaniament to Michael Bedard's text. But it is Emily's own poetry which is the climax of the book. This book would be an excellent accompaniament to any young person's study of Emily Dickinson's poetry.

I had recently visited Emily Dickinson's Homestead in Amherst, Mass. and was very impressed with the tour and the amount of information and I thought this book did it justice in contents as well as in the beautiful illustrations by Barbara Cooney. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

I gave this book to my daughter-in-law, who is an English teacher. The paintings are beautiful and the story touching. It's not just for children!

In a yellow house in Massachusetts lives a woman who hasn't left the house and grounds in nearly twenty years. She hides from strangers - and only a young girl who lives across the street has been able to befriend her. Her name? Emily Dickinson... a fine survey of the poet's inner world comes to life in a lovely picturebook form is supplemented by fine color pictures by Barbara Cooney.

In this story this little girl is curious about her neighbor and this letter her mother recieved. He say footprints coming from her neighbors house to her door. This neighbor hasn't left her house in 20 years. This lady is Emily. Later in the story they decide to go visit her. They went to play music for her. Emily just wanted spring that is why she asked them to play her music n the letter. The little girl keeps thinking about the mystery of Emily when spring has come. This Emily is Emily Dickinson and she is shut in the house for so long because she is writing poetry. She has the little girls mother come to play music becase it inspires her. This is a very good story and might even be true story. I enjoyed it.

The book "Emily" was an ok book for me because I'm just not into mystery books but you other kids may like it. Its about a myth that a person is living in a yellow house and has never came out for 20 years. This little girl, Emily, has always wanted to go there and give the person some bulbs that grow into lillies in the spring. Will she do it? Who knows? You need to read the book to find out what happens next.