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Carver: A Life in Poems

Marilyn Nelson

In Poetry
In Reader Guides

Ages: 12 and up
Grades: All Ages
Pages: 112
List Price: $16.95
Cover: Hardcover
Published: 5/1/2001
ISBN: 1-886910-53-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-886910-53-9

Poems about the life, character, and achievements of the African American inventor, botanist, artist, and teacher.

Read the discussion guide for Carver for pre- and post-reading activities, notes from the author, suggested readings, and discussion topics (will open in a new window).

Awards

African American Booklist (100 titles that celebrate African American heritage, tradition and achievement) �National Education Association

William Allen White Children's Book Award master list

2003-2004

Connecticut Book Award in Literature, Design, and Poetry

2002

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Reviews

New York Times Book Review

"[H]andsome book is footnoted with biographical detail and decorated with photographs."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"An unmatchable picture not only of Carver's life but also of his impact within his time as well as in history. …the book has a resonance and heart that will gratify the knowledgeable and naive alike (and that also invites reading aloud)."

School Library Journal

"The structure of Nelson's books is as inspired as its occasional use of black-and-white photographs … The poems are simple, sincere, and sometimes so beautiful they seem not works of artifice, but honest statements of pure, natural truths."

Show All Reviews

New York Times Book Review

"[H]andsome book is footnoted with biographical detail and decorated with photographs."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"An unmatchable picture not only of Carver's life but also of his impact within his time as well as in history. …the book has a resonance and heart that will gratify the knowledgeable and naive alike (and that also invites reading aloud)."

School Library Journal

"The structure of Nelson's books is as inspired as its occasional use of black-and-white photographs … The poems are simple, sincere, and sometimes so beautiful they seem not works of artifice, but honest statements of pure, natural truths."

Booklist

"In a fine biography in poems, Nelson beautifully and movingly revives [Carver's] reputation."

Christian Home and School

"The author uses beautiful language to express Carver's gift of observation, strong faith, and extraordinary accomplishments. The poem entitled "Ruellia Noctiflora" is an outstanding example of her ability to capture the excitement of looking at a familiar object through Carver's eyes. …High marks for this beautiful work of humanity and history."

Riverbank Review

"Each poem in this volume is a complete work on its own; many originally appeared in adult literary magazines. Accompanied by black-and-white archival photographs, the sequence of poems creates a powerful image of Carver as an independent, inspired man whose sense of purpose was only truly shaken by the deaths of those he loved, particularly his brother and Book T. Washington."

Book Report

"These poems … are powerful, moving, and thorough."

NAPRA Review, PA

"Nelson's brilliantly conceived telling of Carver's life through the voices of people who knew him, as well as his own, conveys complex perspectives about an era, bringing to poignant life the personality of ‘the Professor' (as he came to be known) and the challenges he faced. Historical notes and archival photographs document the poems. (Nelson's The Fields of Praise won the 1998 Poets' Prize; this book deserves at least that much attention.)"

Voice of Youth Advocate

"Nelson allows readers to see Carver as contemporaries might have seen him, with the "light of genius / through the dusky window of his skin." Footnote time lines and photographs of Carver and his effects fill in the barest facts of his life, framing the poems in a historic space. This poetry biography … will captivate readers with it uncommon sensitivity and soul."

Houston Chronicle

"Nelson's poems are vivid snapshots that together create an album of Carver's life."

School Library Journal

"Nelson set new standards for young people's poetry in this volume." —From "Anita's Desert Island Picks"

Journal of African American Children's Literature

"Award winning poet Marilyn Nelson lends her profound admiration, respect, and skill of interpretation to a poetic biography of the life of George Washington Carver. It is no small feat to translate the multifaceted achievements of Carver into a portfolio of vignettes. Each poem serves to weave together the biographical history of the man, the era, and the people of Carter's' world. Nelson's poems reveal the personal strength, internal sensitivity and integral devotion of the man. The writer provides factual footnotes and historical photographs for the poems that illuminate and document the events of Carter's' life and experiences."

Christian Science Sentinel

"Nelson writes about Carver with love and understanding .. .her poems are a a stunning tribute to a great and usually underestimated man."

The Shy Librarian

"Strong and lyrical, this biography movingly recreates not only the key moments in Carver's remarkable life as an inventor and educator, but evokes the passion and emotions not available to the prose writer."

Cooperative Children's Book Center

"[Nelson] conjures a living, breathing, feeling, powerful presence as she writes of a life that was centered and made whole by deep religious faith, a passion for nature, a hunger for learning, and a heart of unmatched kindness from the time he was a small boy. … This work of tremendous creativity and imagination is grounded in the essentials of fact but soars into the realm of understanding that only knowledge of heart and soul can convey."

LYRE - Center for Literature for Young Readers, English Dept, Youngstown State Univ, Ohio/online review

"Nelson, like our best teachers, has managed to educate and inspire at once. This book belongs in classrooms across the curriculum as essential reading for learners of every age."

Foreword

"An award-winning poet, Nelson crafts the poems to near transparency so as not to intrude upon the story she's chosen to tell. … She brings full circle not only Carver's story, but a poetic journey begun with her 1990 collection, The Homeplace, a sequence that tells of her father's experiences as one of that squadron."

Reading Today

"[B]eautiful and intricate."

Ashley Bryan

"The voices in these poems, rise up from the pages in characterful, cadenced lines. The poet has fused words in colors of light that illuminate the speakers and the person of George Washington Carver. Marilyn Nelson has crafted spare, singing lines that succeed in creating a biography in poems that brilliantly evoke Carver's life"

Nikki Giovanni

"You know, if there is any justice, I just read The Pulitzer Prize winning book in poetry. Carver: A life in poems is a brilliant way of looking at that phenomenal, complicated man. Carver, himself, is so crucial to the American experience not only for his genius but also his heart. This book brings him so lyrically alive so much in the moment for all of us to experience. Oh, Marilyn Nelson, what a magnificent job you have done to bring the past so alive it looks like our future."