Reviews (3)

Cute book!
I thought this book was the best when I was a kid, and I still love it! It is one of the cutest books I have ever read! I am now in the 8th grade, and I used this book for a speech competition with my friend. We got a superior (not to brag or anything). This book is probabally for kids from ages 5-8.

Beautiful illustrations
This is a great book for primary grade students. The illustrations are large and wonderful to look at. The text captures the devotion of a dog and the aloofness of a cat to perfection! I loved it!

A Perfect Depiction of Dogs and Cats
I Am the Dog I Am the Cat doesn't tell a story - instead it tells about the characters of a cat and a dog. Anyone who has ever owned either will recognize the essence of the animals in Hall's excellent verse, while Moser's elegant illustrations capture the dog and the cat beautifully.

I recommend this book to anyone who has ever had a pet or ever hopes to have one. Excellent for reading aloud, but be prepared for some rather urgent requests for a dog (or a cat) when the book is done. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

One of the Best!
This fantastic book depicts the story of an early farm family who raise animals, work their land, and make just about everything they need. That is only the begining! The story flows well, starting with a family working together preparing goods for papa to trade in town. It continues with papa trading or selling everything he has brought, including the ox team which he rode into town. He comes home bearing new items, (and a few treats!)to give to his family so they can begin preparing for another year, and another harvesting of goods to sell and trade. Gorgeous color illustrations will transport little ones into the more simple setting of a slower paced life, feeling of clean air, no electricity, and the satisfaction of seeing accomplishments and the rewards of patience and tasks well carried out.

Life in Historical America
The journey of a settler who packs up his cart with surplus that was grown, handmade, and raised on a farm in historical New England. The story takes the reader through what a family has to do to survive during this time period and what each part the family had in that survival. From a historical perspective an awesome book. With the love of history that I have on a personal note this story gives me clues to my own ancestors survival needs. I have two copies of this book one at home and one in my classroom. Very detailed illustrations, very accurate information on the settler's way of life and need for trading or selling off goods that the family helped make. The portrayal of the family with no electricity and providing their own means of survival. The story tells us that the farmer travelled ten days to reach the village of Portsmouth. I would've like to know which direction he came from, whether he had to travel from the south, the north or the west of the village. I would've also like to have know what he saw and who he might have met along the way.
Classroom Activities I do with this book:
Math - Seasons, Sequencing, Money, Trading/Selling, Time Art - Draw the seasons, quilts, weaving, looms, broom making, Science - Make candles, grow a pototo from a seed, make maple sugar,
Social Studies - 13 Colonies, Mapping Skills, Clothing, Occupations, Cooking
Reading - Write a sequel or pre-story to this book, illustrate one aspect of story or write about who he might have met along the way and which direction he came from.

Have you seen, the Ox-Cart Man, the Ox-Cart Man...
Most books that focus on continuity and the circle of life/the seasons/etc. like to concentrate on that theme via animals munching on other animals. We sometimes forget that there are subtler ways to present this same theme. Consider the lovely "Ox-Cart Man" by Donald Hall. A 1980 Caldecott Award winner, the tale focuses on the yearly passage of one man selling his goods only to do it all over again the next year. Ultimately this is one of the most comforting books out there.

The book takes place in what looks to be the mid 19th century. A man that is never named lives on a farm with his wife, daughter, and son. The book begins with the family packing his cart with the various goods they have to sell. There are mittens knit by his daughter, shawls spun and woven by his wife, and birch brooms carved by his son. The book catalogues the items packed away in an oddly riveting fashion. Next, the man travels on foot to a harbor town named Portsmouth. There, he sells the items including his beloved ox. There's a shot of the man kissing his ox good-bye on the nose, which (when you consider the slime factor) is simultaneously touching and gross. He next goes out and buys an iron kettle, an embroidery needle for his daughter, a knife for his son, and two pounds of wintergreen peppermint candies. The man walks home to his family waiting for him and as the seasons pass they build up their items to sell once more. One of my favorite lines is the last one. "And geese squawked in the barnyard, dropping feathers as soft as clouds".

Those people who follow poetry will recognize the name Donald Hall and appreciate the simplicity of his writing in this book. I loved that it began without explaining or pausing, immediately launching into a description of the man loading up his cart. When adult writers or poets write for children, they usually haven't a clue how to go about it (paging Madonna...). Mr. Hall does not suffer from this dilemma. He knows exactly how to make a book that could have been dry and dull, fascinating. Therefore, he uses the repetition of lines to catch the ears of kids. There's an entire page in this book that contains ten lines all beginning with the words, "He sold". I'm both old and young enough to remember when "Ox-Cart Man" was read on Reading Rainbow (one of the very few Caldecott winners to appear on that show) and even as a kid I loved the words in this story. I assure you that this book, for whatever other flaws you may chose to find in it, is not boring in the least.

I was especially taken with the illustrations in this book as well. Illustrator Barbara Cooney is no stranger to Caldecott medals. Having already illustrated the magnificent (and I highly recommend it) "Chanticleer and the Fox", her award count is higher than most. For this book, Cooney adopted a style that has a great many similarities to the kinds of outsider art created during the 19th century. The characters in this book have a kind of purposely flat presence on the page. At the same time, Cooney hasn't sacrificed perspective or the illusion of distance in these prints. Each page is both beautiful and simple, matching the text word for word with appropriate pictures. If the book says that there were turnips, cabbages, a wooden box of maple sugar, and potatoes then by gum you're going to see every single one of those objects on the opposing page. As a kid, I'd always be disturbed by picture books where the words failed to match the text. Here I have no such fears.

Some picture books are filled with bright snazzy flash-in-the pan illustrations and narratives that will date themselves in ten years or less. Others are quiet simple offerings that display beauty as well as a kind of central integrity. "Ox-Cart Man" is in the latter category. This is a book that will be loved for decades and that will only grow more precious in the eyes of children as the years go on. For a fun pairing, try reading it to your kiddies with "Swamp Angel", by Anne Isaacs. Books like this one should be treasured. Fortunately, I think this one already is.

My daughter's favorite read aloud
Between my husband and I , we must have read this book hundreds of times. My daughter always found it a source of comfort before bedtime. Why? Who knows for sure, but it is a lyrical, yet matter of fact, tale of a family that produces all it needs to live that is reassuring and lovely.

A fantastic book for teaching history
I used this book with my third grade class in talking about the skills that our ancestors needed in order to survive. The book is about a man who takes a cart load of goods to town and sells everything including the ox! My students loved the ending, but I won't give that away. This is a must have for the classroom. ... Read more

Book Description

American children's poetry began with Native American cradle songs, moved on to a rhymed alphabet, blossomed in the 19th century with "A Visit from St. Nicholas," expanded in the 20th century, and continues with vigor and inspiration into the new millennium. Some of the best of these poems, however, have been neglected or forgotten, or have simply disappeared. This book, by acclaimed children's author and poet Donald Hall, returns to us the forgotten treasures of American children's poetry. Featuring beautiful drawings from the best children's book illustrations through history--including arcival selections from rare and early editions--this state-of-the-art anthology revives not only the classic poems but also the atmosphere of the periods in which they were written and read.

Starting with a selection from the 1787 New England Primer, "Alphabet," the book spans two centuries to the 1990s with poems by Sandra Cisneros, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Janet S. Wong. Well-known American poets--including Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Eliot, Carl Sandburg, and Robert Frost--are joined by lesser-known masters. Poems about holidays alternate with verses for recitation, nursery rhymes, poems for laughter, bedtime verses, scary poems, and animal poems. Multiculturalists will not be disappointed either--from anonymous Native- and African-American poets we step forward through the ages to admire the talent of Langston Hughes, Sonja Sanchez, and Francisco X. Alarcon. Both parents and teachers will delight in reading from this book to their children and students. ... Read more

Book Description

It is 1917 in rural New Hampshire when twelve-year-old Willard Babson and his father see a roadster slide into a ditch in front of them. "You know anybody can pull me out of here?" asks the tall young driver--and Willard realizes he's staring at Babe Ruth, the best left-hander in baseball. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Peace
I love four things about this book. First, this great contemporary poet wrote it. It also reminds me of Fisherman Simms, a book from my childhood featuring a similar character and pastoral setting. I love the simple but elegant black and white pen and ink illustrations.

I also love the story. The nameless man built a camp on Ragged Mountain and lived alone collecting things, thousands of rusty nails, deer pelts, old newspapers and clocks, and "wasps nests hanging from railroad spike." He built a shed for his mule, who does have a name--Old Beauty. He survived a terrible childhood, a house fire, and when he was 14 left home and tramped around until he returned home to visit his cousins, who made a few years of his youth happy. He liked eating vegetables because "that is what the woodchuck ate." He made friends with an owl named Grover Cleveland. He worked as a carpenter and could do everything else too.

Not much happens here. But this story offers an intense tranquility that others lack. In our harried age, children need this kind of peace. Alyssa A. Lappen

One of if not the most wonderful books I have ever read
I read this book as a fresh eyed 18 year old. I am now a 40 year old woman tattered but not shattered. This happens to be one of those books so rare to me, I feel the same way about it today as I did the first time I ever read it. I gave my copy to my sister an English Lit. teacher. She uses it every semester. Mr. Hall signed it for her. I now only have a photo copy of it and it breaks my heart that I don't have the book. God Bless Mr. Hall and his most magnificent literary ability. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a story of how Christmas was celebrated a long time ago - in an era when the arrival of a new stove from the Sears Catalog was an extraordinary event, when gifts were mostly handmade from homely materials, and when the sky on Christmas night was filled with a million stars. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

My kids love this book year-round
Starting with the beginning of school in the fall, this wonderful book based on the life of the author's grandmother, take us through a rural family preparing for the celebration of Christmas in simple ways - making presents from scraps of fabric and sheep's wool saved through the year; rehearsal for the Christmas play with homemade costumes, and a surprise gift for the daughter who is so enthralled with the new cast iron stove in the kitchen. My girls (3 and 5) ask to have this read year-round. In an age of such materialism, this is a welcome story of a simpler life. The woodcut prints are just the right accompaniment to this story. ... Read more

Book Description

In the tradition of Iona and Peter Opie's Oxford Book of Children's Verse comes this anthology by the award-winning poet and children's book author Donald Hall.Bringing together "poems written for children and also poems written for anybody which children have enjoyed," the book includes anonymous works, ballads, and recitation pieces, beginning with the Calvinist verses of the seventeenth century.

Hall has collected poems from Sunday School magazines, Christmas annuals for children, and children's periodicals such as St. Nicholas and Youth's Companion.Many marvelous writers, some no longer remembered, wrote almost every month for these nineteenth and twentieth century publications.In addition to the expected names of Longfellow and Whittier, we find Sarah Josepha Hale ("Mary Had a Little Lamb"), Mary Mapes Dodge (creator of Hans Brinker), and Palmer Cox (with his marvelous Brownies).Twentieth century authors abound: Ogden Nash, T.S. Eliot, John Updike, Theodore Roethke, to name just a few.The book concludes with the fabulous nonsense of present-day writers like Shel Silverstein and Nancy Willard.

About the Editor:

Donald Hall's many books include The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes, Kicking the Leaves, and Ox-Cart Man, which won the Caldecott Medal for children's literature. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A wonderful book
As parents of a three-year-old, some of our happiest recent moments have been reading to him from this wonderful collection of poems, which range from Colonial works to Emily Dickenson to Richard Wilbur. Sure, much of it is beyond him now, but he likes the rhythm and rhymes he hears--and he even knows to request "Casey at the Bat." We're pretty sure we're going to get a lot of enjoyable use out of this book in years to come.

Excellent book of quality poems for schoolage children
This book is for anyone -- parents, educators, or students -- looking for an excellent anthology of high quality poetry for older schoolage children. Several steps beyond the nursery rhyme, it contains many works by famous poets which are readily accessible to chldren in elementary and middle school. This is one you will keep coming back to again and again!! (As a teacher, I find in preferrable to most of the textbook anthologies available in classrooms.) ... Read more