A painter’s deeply felt images match a poet’s timeless observations about the heart of America in this profound evocation of the texture of life in the Midwest. A sophisticated and beautiful book for all ages, Grassroots is Wendell Minor’s tribute to Carl Sandburg’s work and to the Midwest upbringing they both share.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Dedicated "to all who remember their grassroots," Minor's full-page golden paintings of wind-blown wheat, holstein cows, winter shadows and summer grass take their inspiration from Sandburg's poetry in this handsome volume. Nostalgic images of the Midwest unfold in both text and art; the exquisite paintings of prairies and farms include a roan horse who "feels the foam on the collar at the end of a haul" as well as a round-bellied steamboat captain who stands like Teddy Roosevelt surveying the Mississippi. Glorious colors feature in other paintings: a buffalo stands before a row of teepees, backed by an orange and pink sherbet-colored sunset and a shooting star, his great head "pawing/ on in a great pageant of dusk," and a brilliant green frog sits waiting, beating "the air with a recurring thin/ steel sliver of melody." The barefoot farm boy on the cover, a turn-of-the-century family opposite the title page and a picture of a snowman will appeal to children, but most paintings focus on adult-centered fare: a man and his dog survey the horizon, the fire from dried corn stalks "lights the west in November." Still, few will argue that Sandburg's prayer to the Illinois October sun to "give these crabapples your softening gold" is made more poignant by Minor's stunning rendering of a black-branched tree in autumn. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8AA collection of 16 poems that describe the seasons in America's heartland and the power of the land itselfAthe prairie, the river, the woods, the fields. The imagery of Sandburg's poetry is mirrored in Minor's fine realistic watercolor landscapes. Panoramic views show fields of ripe wheat and plains of both lush green and dried brown grasses. Close-ups focus on a shaggy-haired buffalo, a lone cricket perched on an ear of ripe corn, a frog half submerged in a stream, an owl staring down from his perch on a leafless tree branch, the nearly bare limbs of a crabapple tree in autumn, and a barn at daybreak. Readers exposed to these lovely complements of aural and visual imagery cannot help but come away with a better understanding of poetry and a deeper appreciation of language.ASusan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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