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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.3
EAN: 9780689863974
ISBN: 0689863977
Label: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 32
Publication Date: 2004-10-26
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Leave time for wonder.

Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is an enduring celebration of the imagination. Here, Whitman's wise words are beautifully recast by New York Times #1 best-selling illustrator Loren Long to tell the story of a boy's fascination with the heavens. Toy rocket in hand, the boy finds himself in a crowded, stuffy lecture hall. At first he is amazed by the charts and the figures. But when he finds himself overwhelmed by the pontifications of an academic, he retreats to the great outdoors and does something as universal as the stars themselves...

he dreams.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not for everyone
Review: The drawings for this book are amazing and have a dreamy quality (almost out of focus, but not quite) but they are a little on the dark side and thus difficult to make out for bedtime reading. The book is of course based on the enchanting Walt Whitman poem ("When I heard the learn'd astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars"). The fact that this book is a short read and may not be ideal for a dark room may put off some parents - just so you know.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A book with staying power
Review: My twin daughters were riveted by this book when they were just over three-years-old. They returned to it again and again. It had a quiet, solemn quality that I thought might go over their heads, but it seemed like the opposite was true. There was a lovely synthesis of poetry and image that gave this staying power. It's time to get a copy again to see how they respond. But I'd avoid hypothetical statements of "most children won't understand...(blah, blah, blah). Try 'em, and maybe they'll show you something unexpected.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Uncle Walt rules
Review: I wish I had this book when I was teaching 19th-century American literature to college freshmen. I bought a few weeks ago and have been reading it to my daughters--the oldest is 5. She loves the art, and so do I. Tonight, out of the blue, she recited most of the poem to me over dinner--we had never before worked on memorizing this or any other poem, but I had mentioned to her that this would be a good poem to memorize. Looks like she agreed. I'm forever grateful to Loren Long for giving Walt to my daughter at such an early age.

I can't seem to understand the negativity expressed by some of the other reviewers. To call this poem anti-intellectual doesn't make much sense to me. It does, however, make sense to balance intellectual inquiry with the wonder and appreciation afforded by observation. The reviewer who mentions sharing his telescope ought to agree, since the children who peer through it clearly are excited by wonder--otherwise, why not just Google "Saturn" and find even better images? Gazing up at the sky--whether with the eye or through a telescope--excited the imagination, and there's something to be said for contemplating the stars in silence. What astronomer hasn't?

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Interesting book
Review: I respectfully disagree with the other reviews. I have seen a lot of children dragged to lectures and other broccoli-like occasions depicted in this book. I don't feel this book or this poem is anti-intellectual or out-of-date, in fact, I think it is very timely in view of the current competitive ethos of advancing/preparing children, where we push children to absorb information and to excel academically, but don't always give children the chance to experience and appreciate things on their own terms. What I do think is anti-intellectual is discouraging an illustrator from interpreting a poem in her own way. I'm glad Walt Whitman is being presented and celebrated for a new age. This book is nice presented to young audiences in combination with Walt Whitman: Words for America by Barbara Kerley.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Perfect example
Review: The other poster here is an example of what Walt Whitman talked of so long ago in his poem, about the loss of beauty stripped by blurred reason. His poem still carries with it the truth that was imbued into it when it was written back in his day, yet misunderstood by the Gordon's of today's world. It's a simple truth that cannot be realized by them, the difference between the pursuit of arts or sciences, the difference between the stroke of a brush and the straight line

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