Stephen Vincent BenétRezensionen

"Enfin, ma chère, demanda Mme Calvet un peu émue, vous n'allez pas me dire... une queue ?"
Comment ne pas poursuivre une nouvelle qui commence ainsi ?

Never going to read this, but the $10 purchase from Wm James Books in Port Townsend is well justified by the John Steuart Curry illustrations.

This is one I don't recall, except rembering I enjoyed it.

For greatness to be, the time as well as the man must be right. The right man in the wrong time--and perhaps history is written differently.

4/14/22

This story of folk legend is meant for children's entertainment while communicating a message about taking care of the earth and leaving a legacy. The fictional character in this work is known for the apple trees that are still in bloom. Children will be inspired by Johnny Appleseeds love for the earth. This book is best for children in grades first through third grade.

Brief rumination on the nature of book burning, in the form of a radio play. Highlights the duality of flame as both destructive and renewing, the difference being largely the point of view of the burner. I'm sure that while we view the Nazis as destroyers of intellectual culture via their book burning, they perhaps regarded their work as a renewal of society by eliminating detritus--in other words, the way we feel about ourselves when we busied ourselves burning Nazi materials. Better, perhaps, to be uniformly against the burning of books, than trying to decide that some books deserve burning, but not others. That last is a slippery slope of opportunism.

Post apocalyptic. Not my thing.

This book tells about the life of Jonathan Chapman, who traveled across the United States planting apple seeds. He wore a pot on his head and rags for clothes and when he died, the only legacy he left was that of his trees, which still grew and provided food long after he was gone. This book tells his story in the form of a poem.

The story of Johnny Appleseed including what he did and what he looked like.½

This tall tale gives a uniquely American twist to the Faust story. An unlucky farmer appeals to a fictionalized Daniel Webster, the statesman and orator, to get him out of a contract he signed with the Devil.

Historical Fiction, Poetry
Review: Jonathan Chapman loved apples and distributing his love for them. He travelled around planting his apples in places where there were none.
Critique: This is a good historical fiction book because it tells of how Jonathan Chapman became known as Johnny Appleseed. It is also a good historical fiction because it provides embellishments to his story through the telling of his life in a poem with hyperbole.½

A remarkable poem. Some of it feels very modern, and other parts seem anachronistic even for the time it was written, but always the poem is unexpected in the way these events and these people are portrayed. This poem is one of the few things I've read about the civil war that transcends the expected and manages to make human again an event that has become almost hopelessly entwined with the apocryphal.

Rosemary and Stephen Vincent use rhyme to write their book about Jonathan Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. Although the book lacked hardy text, the poem and the illustrations did all the work. It was a short book but it was still entertaining. I think this book would be best served in an elementary English class. It would show students how to use rhyme and thus poem to tell a story. There is also a short note in the back of the book by the author's son explaining when the poem was written and the meaning of the authors which was pretty insightful.½

An amazing piece of work - to write an epic poem which encompasses the entire Civil War. It was surprising readable and very interesting. I can't imagine how Benet put it all together. Did he write it in chronological order or in bits and pieces and then cobbled it together? Did he maybe write the battles first and then decide on the characters he was going to use to connect them and then write their parts? An immense accomplishment.

These poems shoutd be read in social studies when studying presidents and other famous Americans. The vocabulary is for maybe high school/middle school age students but could be read aloud to younger students.

This book was so cute, and child friendly. It tells the story of Johnny Appleseed and how he planted them wherever he went. Johnny traveled from state to state meeting many different people, and continued to plant. The book speaks on his good nature and innovation, as well as his perseverance.

Teaching Ideas: apples, Johnny Appleseed

7. I absolutely enjoyed this poetic book taken back to a historical figure. Johnny Appleseed, the main character, is believable and authentic. The vibrant illustrations of Johnny Appleseed’s journeys to harvest apples are suitable. Something in which sparked my interest was the apple printed as the first letter of each word to begin the passages. The whole book exhibits a positive outlook in life. Rhythm, imagery, and meaning, the elements of the poem, altogether scaffold the big idea. The way Johnny Appleseed was portrayed through poetry offered a famous personality that highlighted kindness to nature and other individuals holds a good spirit.

"Johnny Appleseed" tells the legend of Johnny Appleseed in a poem/rhyming form. It is an excellent starter book for small children, as well as a cute read. It makes for a good start to a Johnny Appleseed talk.

Jonathan Chapman loved apples. He planted apples where no apples grew. He was a poor man and wore a pot as a hat. He still took care of his seeds though. He planted seeds all over Ohio, even as he got older. Everyone always watched the old man, but let him be. He is known today for his apple trees.

This book was very different from the other poetry books I have read. This one book about Johnny Appleseed was written in poetry form. The book contained 40 pages, each paged consisted of four line stanzas. There wasn't much rhyme in the poem. The illustrations were beautiful and very appropriate for the book. I would read this to students when discussing famous pioneers.

Quaint, dated ... I don't think it would go over well today.

The retelling of Johnny Appleseed was done in entertaining way. They used rhyming throughout the story which was very engaging. It was put in a simple way that children could understand. There were different rhymes throughout the story that were very catchy. For example, "He has no statue. He has no tomb. He has his apple trees Still in bloom." When I read rhyming stories such as this one, they are very interesting and help with remembering facts about a specific person. This book gave just enough information to get the story across and make it interesting for children.

"For fifty years over Of harvest and dew, He planted his apples Where no apples grew.

A long poem, about the Civil War, with many characters and views, but it has some good bits. I read the original edition.

380. John Brown's Body, by Stephen Vincent Benet (read 29 Mar 1951) (Pulitzer poetry prize for 1929) On Mar 27, 1951, I said: "Began reading John Brown's Body. 'Tis quite a book. What it really is is a verse history of the Civil War by Stephen Vincent Benet and his poetry reaches the tops of greatness at times. Some of it nearly reduces me to paroxysms. Like this picture of Clay Wingate, young Georgia aristocrat: 'Wingate sat in his room at night. . . Reading his Byron with knitted brow While his mind drank in the peace of the house, . . .And the slow clock ticking the time that dies . . .'' Or sallies like this: 'the whole troop grumbled and wondered asking For fighting or fleeing or fornicating Or anything else but this bored waiting.' Or this line: 'He only dreams that he is back at home With a heroic wound that does not hurt.' And so it is. Undistiled snatches of greatness and poignancy dot the poem , and thru it all it is eminently readable poetry. With all the work I've to do, you'd think I wouldn't have time. But I'm liking ti so. Am I not entitled to do a little reading like this? It's good for me." On Mar 29 I said: "Finished reading John Brown's Body. 'Tis a great work, and though I'm not good at reading a lot of poetry at once, this didn't even illustrate that fact to me so much, because the meter keeps changing and you never are reduced to a sing-songness that other long poems reduce me to. His account pf Gettysburg, besides reminding me of how little I know of it, was great. These lines knocked me over: 'We have made the sick earth tremble with other shakings in our time, in our time, in our time, but it has not taught us to leave the grain in the field.' Then there was there was this part of John Vilas' soliloquy on returning to Connecticut--the Connecticut he had run away from as a boy--'I shall smell lilac in Connecticut No doubt, before I die, and see the clean White, reticent, small churches of my youth, . . .The pasture -bars I broke to run away. It was my thought to live in an uncropped And savage field no plough had ever scored . ..It was my thought to be beside a stream . . .Too solitary for remembrance.' A tremendous work."