For those like me who before last week wouldn’t have known how long this takes, I would estimate my total reading time to be about an hour and a half. Of course, this isn’t a book that one reads straight through, without stopping. Oh, no–much of the joy and pleasure in this book is in studying Sweet’s delightfully detailed collage illustrations. Sweet’s illustrations incorporate photographs and other memorabilia from White’s life, as well as quotes from his many and varied writings–from his novels to his letters to his magazine articles to his nonfiction. I suppose it goes without saying that as a biography, this book covers all of White’s life, not just his writing of his children’s novels. However, because I have read a little here and there about White and especially how he came to write Charlotte’s Web, I found it particularly refreshing to read about other aspects of his life and his other books. (It definitely renewed my interest in reading through Elements of Style.) Sweet does a good job of presenting White’s life in a unified way that is simple enough for upper elementary students to grasp, but it isn’t over-simplified. For example, she includes such details as the fact that White and his wife fell in love while she was still married to her first husband, a fact that she could’ve glossed over. The gently conversational tone of Sweet’s narrative and her explanation that White didn’t cause the dissolution of Katherine’s first marriage, but that they “finally, one autumn” got married. Thus, while Some Writer! endears White to its readers, it avoids hagiography by a fair distance. The interplay between Sweet’s prose and her artwork is both subtle and evocative of the spirit of White and his works. I love this book and can’t wait to see what honors its garners–nothing will surprise me! It has already made several big-name “Best of 2016” lists, as well as being named the 2017 Orbis Pictus winner by the NCTE. It will definitely make my 2016 short list. Highly, highly Recommended. (Houghton Mifflin, 2016)
Related links:
- My review of The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims
- My review of the Charlotte’s Web audiobook
- My review of Trumpet of the Swan
- “Charlotte’s Web Redux”
- “Just Call Me E.B. White”
- “He’s appealing to your stomach, Wilbur!”
- Melissa Sweet’s website
- Melissa Sweet interview at BookPage
- Examples of Sweet’s creative process at 7 Impossible Things
- Read Aloud Revival podcast interview with Melissa Sweet
