6.06.2011

Pablo Neruda

Poet of the People

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday

hosted today by Chapter Book of the Day
 
Henry Holt and Company (Macmillan)
(pub. 3.29.2011) 

32 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Monica Brown
              and illustrator: Julie Paschkis
  
C haracter: Pablo Neruda
 
O verview from the jacket flap: 
       "Once there was a little boy named Neftali, who loved wild things wildly and quiet things quietly... Neftali discovered the magic between the pages of books. When he was sixteen, he began publishing his poems as Pablo Neruda.
        Pablo wrote poems about the things he loved - things made by his artist friends, things found at the marketplace, and things he saw in nature.  He wrote about the people of Chile and their stories of struggle. Because above all things and above all words, Pablo Neruda loved people."

T antalizing taste: 
       "From the moment he could talk, Neftali surrounded himself with words that whirled and swirled, just like the river that ran near his home in Chile ...
       He always wrote in green ink - the color of the ferns in the forest and the grass beneath his feet."

and something more:
 
The ribbons of English and Spanish words in the beautiful illustrations by Julie Paschkis are so evocative of poetry in this terrific picture book biography, Pablo Neruda Poet of the People, by Monica Brown. They remind me of teaching Pablo Neruda's poems to my 7th grade students -- they particularly enjoyed composing their own odes (with much creativity and variety) after studying the rich language in Neruda's odes, such as "Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market" or "Ode to an Artichoke." When my son was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Chile, he visited Pablo Neruda's home in Santiago and was amazed by its color and creativity (befitting for such an amazing poet).

7 comments:

Anastasia Suen said...

LI love this ACOT format! Thanks for participating in Nonfiction Monday this week!
:-) Anastasia

Jeanne Walker Harvey said...

Thanks Anastasia! And thanks for your blogging tips, too in your course :)

Books4Learning said...

Jeanne, you always amaze me with beautiful books on people I am not even familiar with. I feel like I am getting an education! :) Pablo sounds like a fascinating person. I'll see if I can find this on my local library. Thanks.

GatheringBooks said...

I am so glad to have been brought to your site through the non-fiction Monday round-up post. I have been a huge fan of Neruda for as long as I can remember. But I never thought that there was a picture book done about parts of his life. This is really great. I would definitely look this up in our library.

Jeanne Walker Harvey said...

Great to hear you both like the Neruda book review! And welcome Myra!

GatheringBooks said...

Hello! I just wanted to share with you that I found the book in our community library - would include this in one of our non-fiction Monday posts and link to your site as well. =)

Jeanne Walker Harvey said...

I'm so glad you found the book, Myra. And thanks so much for linking to me!