Rich in imagery and detail, this exquisitely rendered picture book introduces readers to one of America’s favorite classic poems, “The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Illustrated by Susan Jeffers, the Caldecott-Honor winning author of Three Jovial Huntsmen, A Mother Goose Rhyme, this book beautifully weaves together oral traditions of American Indian culture and presents a charming and hypnotic account of Hiawatha’s boyhood.
Hiawatha
Exquisite, detailed illustrations grace this picture book which presents the part of Longfellow’s stirring poem dealing with Hiawatha’s boyhood and his relationship to his grandmother, who teaches him about the ways of animals and the forces of nature. The illustrator’s careful research on flora and fauna and woodland Indian culture is certainly evident. A note at the beginning of the text explains the poem’s background. This is undoubtedly a picture book for all ages.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular and admired American poet of the nineteenth century. Born in Portland, Maine in 1807, Longfellow’s ambition was always to become a writer. Versatile as well as prolific, Longfellow eventually won fame with long narrative historical and mythic poems, alongside short stories, novels, verse dramas, and more. Taken as a whole, Longfellow’s writings show a breadth of literary learning, an understanding of western languages and cultures, unmatched by any American writer of his time.
