Emily

Grades 2-5. Story about poet about young Emily Dickinson. Reality and Fantasy. Poeticically written.

Absolutely wonderful book about a girl who lives across the street from Emily Dickinson. She got to see her one day when her mother played the piano for the poet. Striking colored pictures that invite the reader onto the street on the page.

"Listen to mother play. She practices and practices a piece, and sometimes a magic happens and it seems the music starts to breath. It sends a shiver through you. You can't explain it, really; its a mystery, its called poetry."

Students will learn how to write poetry as a way of looking at a poets

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life.

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A lovingly written picture book tribute to Emily Dickinson. Bedard's prose imagery is like poetry: "We were still new to the house the day the letter dropped through the slot. I heard it whisper to the floor and ran to pick it up. I peeked through the narrow window in the door. There was no one

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there but winter, all in white." The white of winter alludes, I think, to Emily's habit of wearing only white clothing. On the same page, Bedard pays tribute to one of Emily's poems, "I'm Nobody" when the Mother in the story receives a letter. Her little girl asks who its from and she replies, "Nobody, dear." Further along, the father in the story sings to his daughter before bed, and Bedard's words flow like Emily's poetry: "Like flakes of flowers the words fell to the sheets. I listened to them fall and fell asleep." The little girl asks her father what poetry is. He replies: "Listen to Mother play. She practices and practices a piece, and sometimes magic happens and it seems the music starts to breathe. It sends a shiver through you. You can't explain it, really; it's a mystery. Well, when words do that, we call it poetry." What a perfect explanation! In the story, Emily writes a poem for the child in exchange for the child's gift of flower bulbs.

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This is an imagined story of a little girl's contact with Emily Dickinson. The illustrations are beautiful. The writing is very poetic and could be used as a mentor text in the classroom; "Mother wore her new silk dress, the one that whispered when she walked. the dress I wore was white, like the

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disappearing snow. . . . The road was full of mud and mirrors where the sky peeked at itself." Lovely.

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great book about a girl who lives across from the wonderful Emily Dickinson. Gives students a preview of who is emily dickinson.