Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. In On the Same Day in March 0 (2000), collaborators Singer and Lessac highlighted locations around the globe to drive home variations in climate, culture, and landscape. A waterway as mighty as the Mississippi similarly contains multitudes, and here it supports 14 snapshotlike poems charting the river's progress from its source in Minnesota to its Gulf of Mexico delta. In a folk-art style studded with painstaking details (tiny bargeworkers in St. Paul, a baby gator in swampy Arkansas), Lessac captures both the changing environment and the water's chameleon-like shifts in color. Although labeled maps give children a clear sense of the big picture, the premise occasionally seems as cloudy as Big Muddy itself. There is no stable point of view to make the "journey" concrete, and the poems confusingly mix fictional situations and historical references that are reliant on the endnote for clarification. Still, the collection's interdisciplinary applications are numerous, and creative teachers will surely find ways to extend its usefulness both above and below the age level of the core audience. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-This colorful picture book takes readers on a cruise down Old Man River, beginning in Minnesota on Monday: "A little stream among so many streams./A little girl wiggles her toes/in the shallow water and wonders,/How long before we're big and strong, little Mississippi?/How many miles? How many days?" The journey ends on Sunday in Louisiana at the river's mouth, where a boy ponders: "Will I ever see where you start, big Mississippi?/Will I ever tell where you end/and the wide, wide sea begins?" The poetic text highlights a few important locations and historical events along the way. Lessac's primitive gouache illustrations brightly reflect each day's trip, showing children on the riverbanks engaging in interesting activities while barges, steamboats, and tugboats float by. The book opens with a map of the river's entire span, and every spread includes a smaller view of the day's featured area. Two pages of appended notes fill in some details about the places and events referred to in the narrative. Beautifully executed in text and illustrations, this title offers an enjoyable read as well as an educational one. It begs to be used in a unit on the Mississippi, perhaps in conjunction with Jill Esbaum's Ste-ee-e-eamboat a-comin'! (Farrar, 2005).-Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Lessac's primitive art reinforces the concept that the Mississippi River is an integral part of our heritage as readers follow a poetic text that takes them from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Louisiana Delta. The background necessary to understand metaphorical and historical references reaches beyond the audience and is not explained in the afterword. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This unique introduction to Old Man River combines poetry, art, history and geography into a multifaceted whole that just keeps rolling along down the path of the mighty river's progress. The volume's innovative design includes 14 non-rhyming poems that follow it through the course of a week from its beginnings in Minnesota all the way to New Orleans. Each poem and accompanying double-page-spread illustration offers a different view and more information about it, including important cities, key historical facts and insights into riverboat traffic and transportation. A small inset map of the pertinent city and state under discussion is integrated into each illustration, with a helpful larger map on the title page showing the ten states touched by the mighty river. Some poems include children experiencing it in different ways: boating, fishing, hiking and listening to jazz in New Orleans, while other poems introduce famous people who lived along the river. Vibrant gouache illustrations in a naïve style help bring the Mississippi and its surroundings to life. (author's note) (Picture book/poetry. 5-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
