Picture Book 25: A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams

Author: Jennifer Fisher Bryant

Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Nonfiction

Themes: commitment, following dreams

Characters:

~Primary: William Carlos Williams

~Secondary:

Awards:

~Caldecott Honor Book

Date of Publication: 2008

Publication Company: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Summary: Willie loves to write poems.  He fills his notebooks with them, the words that make him feel free and peaceful. But Willie needed to be able to earn a living.  He decided to become a doctor, but even then he never gave up on his love of writing poetry.

Recommendation: This book holds a wonderful message for children.  It shows that the responsibilities that people have are important, but that they do not have to get in the way of dreams. I would like this book to introduce a different form of poetry, since Williams's style is non-rhyming, free form poetry, and most students are familiar with poems that have a strict rhyme and meter.