16 Words
William Carlos Williams and "The Red Wheelbarrow"
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
This simple nonfiction picture book about the beloved American poet William Carlos Williams is also about how being mindful can result in the creation of a great poem like "The Red Wheelbarrow"--which is only sixteen words long.
"Look out the window. What do you see? If you are Dr. William Carlos Williams, you see a wheelbarrow. A drizzle of rain. Chickens scratching in the damp earth." The wheelbarrow belongs to Thaddeus Marshall, a street vendor, who every day goes to work selling vegetables on the streets of Rutherford, New Jersey. That simple action inspires poet and doctor Williams to pick up some of his own tools--a pen and paper--and write his most famous poem.
In this lovely picture book, young listeners will see how paying attention to the simplest everyday things can inspire the greatest art, as they learn about a great American poet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Look out a window. What do you see?" An invitation to notice sets the tone for this compelling story of how an iconic poem by William Carlos Williams (1883 1963) came to be, conjuring the specific people, places, things, and perspective that coalesced into his 16-word verse. We meet Dr. Williams, busy treating patients and delivering babies, and African-American Thaddeus Marshall, the neighbor who owns the wheelbarrow "He depends on the wheelbarrow to carry the vegetables he sells to his neighbors." The fact that Marshall is a gardener "who has been ill" deepens the poem's context, as does Williams's process as an artist who "fits in his writing around his doctoring." Telling details in Groenink's thoughtful illustrations amplify the importance of observation: Marshall pushes his wheelbarrow up the street as Williams, seen through a window, types; plums, a fire truck, and a cat nod to his other poems. Williams's koanlike poem closes the story, its marvel of compacted meanings crystallizing everything that has come before. Ages 4 8.
