Customer Reviews

Henry David Thoreau: Three Complete Books: The Maine Woods, Walden, Cape Cod

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As part of the Gateway Biography series issued by Millbrook Press in the early 1990s, this book provides a fairly decent overall view of Henry David Thoreau's life, philosophies, and writings. Young students will learn much more here than they'll find in an encyclopedia entry, and the text is written in an easy reading style. Much emphasis focuses on the love of the natural world, which is perfect for a book on this topic. The concept of transcendentalism is even approached: "By being close to nature, we can get a hint of the spirit that *transcends* (is above) material things. All we have to do is get away from useless, routine activities, go outdoors, and listen to nature as it speaks to us." Some scholarly descriptions don't make as much sense as those two sentences do.

However, readers should be warned that some details here are not quite accurate. For example, you cannot see the foundation stones of Henry's Walden Pond hut, as the author states. Granite markers outline its original perimeter, but they were installed in the 20th century. The most blatant error occurs on pages 12 and 13, where a photo of the North Bridge appears. The text claims that Henry and his brother John often walked across that bridge. Wrong! When they were alive, no bridge spanned the river at that site. The one the Minutemen used in 1775 was gone and had not yet been replaced. The current wooden bridge wasn't built until the 20th century. The Concord of today is not a carbon copy of the Concord of the mid-1800s.

Yet the basic information presented here is good. School libraries will want more options than just this one on their biography shelves. Families should supplement this book with others on the market to give children an accurate portrayal of our first American environmentalist.