A Man Named Thoreau

Thoreau is a man who lives simply, who builds a house out in Walden, among the trees, ponds, animals and fresh air. My favorite quote was what Thoreau says, "It is easier to get a house, than to get rid of it." And, he also says, "It's never clear if the man owns the house--or if the house owns the

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man." I really like the purpose of this book, to enlighten children about the simple pleasure of life, to rid yourself of the material, and fill yourself with the natural existing things in the world. Instead of measuring cost in dollars and cents, he measures things in terms as how much life was lost in order to buy that thing. For instance, a house costs many years of labor (and perhaps unpleasant labor) to buy it. I also like the way he view clothing, as taking many years for the clothes to really fit a person's body.

Throughout the story I wondered, this is all well and good, but how lonely he must have been! Then the author soothed my disbelief with the mention 2/3 into the book, that he was in fact surrounded by many friends. "Friends," he says, "are kind to each other's dreams."

A great story about a simply man as an author. Although, I wish there was a sense of time and place, perhaps the author meant it to be so. Thoreau once said, "Read not the Times, Read the Eternities." A timeline is provided at the end of the story to fulfill the reader's craving for linear description.

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This is definitely not like later Burleigh, but it's a very thorough biography of the life of Henry David Thoreau. The pencil drawings are beautiful, though I think I prefer color in my illustrations generally. Not a bad biography to have in your collection.

This book would make a nice companion to "Civil Disobedience." It could be used to introduce students to Thoreau before delving into his essay. The illustrations are so nice you could also have students do a close reading of some of the pictures before reading "Civil Disobedience."

A fabulous introduction to Thoreau's biography, intertwined with some of his most provocative and memorable lines from his many works. I loved that the illustrations are in black and white since this further promotes Thoreau's push for simplicity the author seems to stress. This could be an

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excellent introduction to the author when studying Transcendentalism or serve as a great resource for students writing on Thoreau's works.

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I would use this book in the classroom when discussing biography and the different style of biographies. This book hones in on one particular part of HDT's life, when he was writing his famous novel "Walden. I truly enjoy HDT's writing and would love to pass along his ease of thinking to the

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younger generation. In the opening of the book there is a quote from Thoreau, "If you have built your castles int he air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them", it is such an inspiration in how to live life.

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