From lighthearted Phyllis Mc-Ginley to pessimistic Ezra Pound; from the lyricism of Edna St. Vincent Millay to the vigor of Lawrence Ferlinghette; from Carl Sandburg on loneliness to Paul Dehn on the bomb -- such is the range. The little known or unknown poet and the widely recognized appear side by siide.
Whatever the subject matter -- pheasant or flying saucer; lapping lake water or sonic boom; a deer hunt, a basketball, or a bud -- it is all poetry reflecting today's images and today's moods.
The editors spent several years bringing together 1200 poems they considered fine enough to include, then slowly and carefully sifted out of 114 which appear in the book.
Readers of Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle . . . and Other Modern Verse may well be tempted by Eve Merriam's suggestion in "How to Eat a Poem"
Don't be polite
Bite in.
Pick it up with your
fingers and lick
The juice that may
run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now,
whenever you are.
Customer Reviews:
Remembering my childhood.......2007-09-06
When I was in grade school I bought this book through a reading
program. I had lost the book somewhere along the way. Having
this book again is like finding a long lost friend.
A book I'll forever associate with pepperoni rolls and tuna subs and reading while I ate them.......2006-06-29
Unlike other reviews I've attempted, this one really matters for a host of reasons. For one thing I've read the book. Also I love the book. I value it enough to want to convey the "essense of it" and I'm recommending it to friends and you know how that goes. Say one thing a little off and a recommended book is never looked at again.
So with no small amount of weight here on my shoulders I will try and tell a reader what this book was like for me. Essentially I probably formed all my beliefs and values in the late 60's and early 70's- I think we should make wax crayon candles and frog plaster casts for our tables, I'm really into trolls though I no longer have or collect them, I recall thinking Woodstock sounded like the best idea ever except I'm not so much into mud. This book was published in 1966 and I got my hands on it in 1968 in a book order from Scholastic that I ordered from school. Likely I ordered not knowing what I was asking for, as I wasn't a particularily good reader then. But I got it and this was how I DISCOVERED POETRY. If I can be forgiven it's rather like your first love. You see the world through a different lens ever after. I know my peers were grappling with their own issues but I was in a life that needed poetic vision and I loved that this collection spurs you into thinking about nuclear winter, jazz, lonliness, kittens. It was just great. Vietnam body and injury count numbers appeared nightly on the TV then and I had friends with older brothers at war, so I think I was thinking rather much on life. The collection contains poems by Yvor Winters, Ferlinghetti, cumming, Hughes, Roethke, Leuders(who put it together and you must get his "Clam Lake Papers"-trust me) and so many writers that I read them from this initial introduction all my life.Talk about turning on... So what can I quote....well amazingly most of it:
how about:
Unfolding Bud
One is amazed
By a water-lily bud
Unfolding
With each passing day,
Taking on a richer color
And new dimensions.
One is not amazed,
At first glance,
By a poem,
Which is tight-closed
As a tiny bud.
Yet one is surprised
To see the poem
Gradually unfolding,
Revealing its rich inner self
As one reads it
Again
And over again.
Naoshi Koriyama
Wish I wrote like that one day out of my life. So if you work your way through the collection it's rather a soul opening experience. And perhaps a lifelong affliation I have with the text has allowed me to use it to propel this vision of "what poetry is.." into teaching in my classrooms. When I read the book as I was doing this morning waiting for the power to be reinstated after my husband forgot to get the bill in the mail...again...which is off topic...but aggrivating...I was thinking of how i feel sad sometimes I grew up. Well I miss those times in some ways...as I'm not really happy in the Bush vision. Teaching was fun, and now is hide and still try to make it fun. These poems coalesce for me a time spent down by the pond, or weaving my daisy chains. (which I'm still rather into) Again I recommend it to anyone who can read this review to the end and not declare the reviewer is on a liberal toot...tho it might be that.Yeah it is I guess that... I do think in the world I'm in today the values contained in this book, if one can call it that-I prefer "voice"-you know how we are- anyway it does talk to social action, ecology, compassion, veneration of soul. And we know how that's going these days....it's not corporate or commercial, upper classed enough or botoxed either. It's a book of a time I'd like to scoop up and dust this world in again like lucious powdered sugar. So if you get it write a review if you can capture the essence of why it changed my life for me.
cool.......2004-11-08
I had a poetry project for school. this made it easy. Poems were ok.
A great book!.......2003-10-09
I pulled this book off the shelf in our house and was suprised how much i enjoyed it! I actually read it for an English porject for 10th grade. I wish there were some other reviews of this book that were more critical because that's what i needed for the project...too bad, it is too good a book to say anything bad about it!!
Highly Recommended For Out Loud Reading.......2002-06-03
In 1972, I chose several poems from Reflections... for a poetry anthology I compiled as a project for my Children's Literature course. This course was an elective course I took while earning my B.A. in teaching. For many years, this book was part of my classroom. Yesterday, I read "Crossing" by Philip Booth (about watching a train at a railroad crossing) from that book at a variety show at my church. Today, four people requested the title of the book I read that poem from! For 30 years, I have recommended this book -- I should get a commission on the number of copies I have sold! Makes a wonderful birthday, holiday, etc. gift for any child.
Average customer rating:
- Brautigan's Style is 5 star for me.
- A lot of hype, not very good
- Who really cares about trout?
- He heard the sound of his own drummer
- Dear Zik, I Lied: I Really Hated This Book But Didn't Have The Heart To Admit It
|
Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar
Richard Brautigan
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
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Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away
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Richard Brautigan : A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and the Hawkline Monster (Three Books in the Manner of Their Original ed)
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You Can't Catch Death: A Daughter's Memoir
ASIN: 0395500761 |
Book Description
A Brautigan omnibus, reissued in paperback in celebration of its twentieth anniversary, this one-volume edition includes three contemporary classics that embody the spirit of the 1960s.
Customer Reviews:
Brautigan's Style is 5 star for me........2007-07-24
I have read just about all of Brautigan's books, and never with disappointment. They are all so good that it is hard to pick a favorite. .-- Sam Yulish, author of WHERE HAVE ALL THE HIPPIES GONE and THE HESITANT PSYCHIC AND OTHER STRANGE STORIES.
A lot of hype, not very good.......2007-06-27
I bought this book after my brother-in-law recommended it but was not impressed. Some of the stories are somewhat entertaining, but most seem pointless or weird for the sake of being weird.
Who really cares about trout?.......2005-11-28
Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America could have been a real classic for the ages. That is, it could have been a classic if it wasn't about trout fishing and if it wasn't written by Richard Brautigan. Brautigan seems directionless as usual here, leaping haphazardly from one place in time to another. Just when he comes up with an interesting line or word, he seems to forget about it and leave you hanging while he goes off to some other world. His writing is the equivalent of sitting in a chair under a tree drinking MD 20/20, suddenly falling onto your back, and then staring up at the leaves and wishing that it all meant something quite profound. And that is where the problem lies--Brautigan wants the grander themes and ideas of the world to be expressed in his books, but he never does the legwork to get you there. You feel teased after reading his poems, like a girl who says she'd like to date you, then leaves you to go swimming at the YWCA, and you never hear from her again. Do you see where I'm going here? You can't make lemonade out of a sourpuss. Brautigan never gave it his best shot, and unfortunately, he left the world without having said very much to it.
He heard the sound of his own drummer .......2005-09-20
The man is no longer here so its necessary to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Brautigan was in the long tradition of American originals. Thoreau defined it as the person who can't walk in step with the others because he 'hears the sound of his own drummer'.
Brautigan put a number of things together. A kind of clearness in telling about what he was seeing right before him. A kind of whimsical random associativeness which broke up the prose line, and often make it feel as if what was on the page had nothing to do with what had come before it or after it. And most savingly, a kind of humor , this very much connected with the going his own way, and displacing things and putting them in strange order. Surprise. He also had a closeness to America, whether he liked it or not.
I agree with many of the readers about his big problem being that he often seemed to not really know or care what he was talking about. Writing was his business, and whatever came to him that's what made it on the page. So it seems.
But he had a kind of lightness with it all, and he could really sometimes make the reader laugh, which in my opinion, is saying a lot.
I do not know what he really believed, unfortunately.
Reading him is like taking a ride in an amusement park. You enjoy it but you are not exactly sure you know why. And in the end it is not something that is going to stay with you in the strongest way.
Enjoy the reading while you are reading it- and don't expect too much more.
Dear Zik, I Lied: I Really Hated This Book But Didn't Have The Heart To Admit It.......2005-09-07
Brautigan was a very weird man. I understand he went on to take his own life. That's a shame, but honestly I can kind of see the suicidal mindset in him if the man he writes about in the first-person in these is a real reflection of how he truly thought. He was a grouch and mean-spirited to the people around him. He clearly thought he was smarter than everybody else and his writings show he probably wasn't. A lot of people say this book is original but it's not, it's more like...typical midling-talent hack writing with countercultural, back-to-earth themes. He wanted to shock and tease and praise a simple life all at once and be non-tactfully frank about certain things to the point of grossness, and that's not my cup o' tea. Other than the poignant "childhood Kool-Aid" piece, the only part I liked in any of these books was in "Trout Fishing" when Brautigan caught a humpbacked fish whose odd manner of swimming he compared to Lord Byron's limp. Even that wasn't spectacular. Also, his wife should have left him over all the mean things he said about her. She must've been a saint to put up with him. I honestly don't see why any of these books make for good reading. They're a waste of time.
(If by some cosmic chance you ever happen to read this review, Zik, wherever the heck you are in this decade, sorry I lied about liking this but I didn't want to be rude about your favorite book. Since you "borrowed" those CD's of mine that I never saw again, I wish I'd have admitted how sucky I thought Brautigan was at the time.)
Book Description
February the fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me...I can only assume the two events weren't entirely unrelated.
Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to their first baby, James informs her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a postpartum body that she can hardly bear to look at.
She decides to go home to Dublin. And there, sheltered by the love of a quirky family, she gets better. So much so, in fact, that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Story.......2007-10-04
I think that Marian Keyes is the most humorous and interesting authors out there on the market today. In "Watermelon" she not only gave me a trip to Limerick and a visit to an Irish family and all the love, disappointments and values that go with this family of characters, but I got a wonderful story and a terrific read. Highly recommend.
Looking for a stunning Women's Fiction then check out Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. The author heralds the relationship between husband and wife in this romance with a bit of mystery novel. In this warm and wonderful story you will travel with Zoie Baker, the heroine, on her quest to build a swimming pool by gathering aluminum cans. She feels right down to her bones that this is her destiny. Unique cans that she stumbles on, i.e., Nehi, Mountain Dew, etc., takes the reader on a glorious journey in the life of Zoie from World War II where she meets Nat, a Marine, at a USO Club, through the 1980's. This gripping story will keep you up to read just one more chapter. Check it out. You won't be disappointed! Bye
A Favorite, but not an All-Time Favorite. . ........2007-10-02
In keeping with my recent ambition to re-read many books that I've dubbed "favorites" over the years, I picked up Watermelon for the first time since I originally read the book about seven or eight years ago. I felt it was about time to let some of my favorite books re-prove themselves to me that they could be, years later, indeed worthy of such titles. And Watermelon just happened to be next on my list.
In reading Watermelon for a second time, I immediately fell in love with the first chapter all over again. It was sharp, quick, and funny. Claire seemed like someone you'd want to get to know and her story seemed like one I'd want to listen to. Many parts of the book were very funny and there were certain quotes and thoughts about life that I found myself nodding at and remembering back from the first time that I had read them years ago.
However, during the journey back through the book, I wavered between liking Claire and hating her. Towards the middle, I wanted to smack her and at certain times right before the book was resolved, I really couldn't bring myself to understand her nativity. I guess when I was in my teens I could accept a little more how she might let her ex-husband try to manipulate her. And I guess I'm happy to say that in my 20s, I am not so willing to let her off the hook for lacking some serious self-respect.
That isn't to say that I didn't like Watermelon, because I really did and, to be honest, I still do. But I don't LOVE it in the way I think I remember I once did. The story was fun to follow, but way too long; some of those middle chapters (and certainly the ones that didn't have to do with Adam) dragged on forever. And the Adam character still seems too dreamy to believe. I think my teenage self definitely believed a little too much that a character like that could just appear in someone's life, and my older self just wants to shake my head. (Not that the idea is impossible, but let's admit the fact that it's just not incredibly likely that one's marriage would completely fall apart and one would meet/fall in love with the most perfect dreamy guy in less than four months!) However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading about and imagining just how pretty and perfect he seemed. We all need a bit of that sometimes - myself definitely included!
All that being said, I found that while I had always referred to Watermelon as one of my favorite books, I very much failed to take into consideration just how many books I'd be reading in the coming decade. I've read probably hundreds of books since I had first read the first of Keyes' novels to be printed in America. Now Watermelon, which at some point might have fit in my top 10 or top 20, might now be more likely to fit into my top 50 or top 100 if I were to make a list that large. And it would certainly make those lists. I feel at this point (years later) that I'd want to read some of Keyes' other books now that I have Claire's other sisters (like Helen) fresh in my mind. I think it would be fun to see how Keyes' other books tie in the same family. (Note: I had read Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married which was okay, and half of Rachel's Holiday, which I embarrassingly admit I never finished, in the immediate years following my first Watermelon read).
So the verdict has come down that Watermelon is certainly a book that I look upon favorably and with appreciation, but no longer an all-time favorite. And I'm okay with that. I do have a lot of respect for Marian Keyes and my mission now becomes finding a book of hers that I love as much as my teenage self once loved Watermelon.
Wishy Washy Woman with no wits about her!.......2007-09-28
I'm not too sure where I stand with this novel. It was a slow read for me, but it was still good. It's about a woman who married a conniving adulterer. He leaves her the day she has their baby, Kate, for a woman he had been sleeping with during the pregnancy. That really made me furious....but what really made me mad was how the main character handled her jerk of a husband when he finally changes his mind and comes back....I had to skim through this part b/c I was so frustrated.
I think it was a good summer read, but I think I wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't a pick of someone else's in my book club.
I'm not a big fan of dry senses of humor...but the other man in the story...ADAM seemed to be a hunk....and that story line I kept trying to get to!!
So, there were good parts, and a lot of bad parts....but at least it made me feel some kind of emotion that I think was intended. I think this was a first published book for this author...so I've been told that she has gotten better.
watermelon.......2007-06-08
Well, I just loved this book. Yes, after a while it's pretty clear how it will all work out, but sometimes we need an obvious happy ending to a book or movie to lift our spirits. Not to mention Marian Keyes is an amazing author.
New baby, wayward husband, crazy family..........2007-06-07
Claire really has it all! This is a nice beach reading book. Our heroine is very sympathetic, her family is as eccentric as they are well-meaning, and her spirit will NOT be defeated by any of it.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent book on the plant life cycle
- A Great Collection
- Fun and Facts!
|
A Seed Grows : My First Look at a Plant's Life Cycle (My First Look at Nature)
Pamela Hickman
Manufacturer: Kids Can Press, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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How a Seed Grows (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)
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ASIN: 1550742000 |
Book Description
The My First Look at series provides young chidren with an introduction to the world around them. In A Seed Grows, follow the growth of a plant, from a peek inside a sprouting seed to the harvest of the fruit. The book suggests ways parents and children can explore nature - without disturbing it.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the plant life cycle.......2007-01-31
The life cycle of a plant from seed to seed is beautifully illustrated and told as a story in the rhythmic pattern of the "House that Jack Built". Each page has a flap and under each flap is more information about plants, the garden and its other inhabitants. My 3 year old enjoyed the book and the flaps. I'm not crazy about the flaps because I'm afraid he is going to tear them up, but that is my only complaint about the book. The illustrations are detailed and visually interesting. It kept my small childs attention and he would have liked that I left the book with him. An improvement would be to republish the book with all the same information but make it a board book and no flaps.
A Great Collection.......2003-03-25
This book has been great fun to use while planting our garden. It helps speed the process along to show what will happen next, plus has great illustrations to show what happens under the ground. This entire series of books is top-rate.
Fun and Facts!.......2000-01-27
I really enjoyed this book that I donated to our school library. I seldom see books that are both non fiction and fiction in one edition. The illustrations were great and the flip format was fun.
Book Description
When Grandpap teaches Charlie how to plant watermelon seeds in the spring, Charlie hopes they'll grow a "Wishing Watermelon." Grandpap has never heard of such a thing, and when he asks Charlie what he would wish for, Charlie won't tell. Through a whole summer of biking, fishing, basketball, and waiting for watermelons together, Grandpap tries to guess his grandson's harvest wish. Lush, vivid paintings evoke the friendship, teamwork, and affection between grandfather and grandson as they share their wisdom and this special summer together.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful and Touching.......2007-06-26
Our family loves this book. A great gift to share with any new grandfathers you know!!
Customer Reviews:
Almost.......2007-09-18
Erickson's almost back to the top of his form. This is funny, the jokes are fresh, and the character voices are good,. I was glad to see the return of an old friend--Eddie the Rack. Drover's always good for a laugh, and Slim. After the fiasco of "Kitty Cheater", I was pretty shaken up, but "Watermelon Patch" was refreshing.
A delightful departure from the ordinary Hank format.......2006-06-30
Just when I was convinced that John Erickson was stuck forever on his rigid formula of Hank the Cowdog books that always had 12 chapters lasting between 9 and 15 minutes apiece in their audiobook format, he comes and surprises me with an *audio only* series of shorter stories. Having enjoyed Hank since childhood and never having seen any Hank stories that departed from Erickson's normal formula, I didn't know quite what to expect, but I needn't have worried. It's a thoroughly enjoyable story with plenty of laughs.
The CD is divided into 14 miniature chapters lasting about 5 minutes apiece. Hank is at his usual blundering, conceited, and thoroughly dense best, falling for a prank that gets him in trouble with Sally May, having inane conversations with his sidekick Drover, being tempted by temptations, and once again teaming up with Eddy the Rac, the raccoon character introduced in Book #23, with predictable results. Sally May is growing watermelons to sell, but with hungry raccoons running amok in the watermelon patch, Hank is resolved to find a way to stop them... or at least a way to get the credit for it!
Aside from having a good plot as Hank books go, this story benefits from the short chapters and overall shorter duration. Honestly, there are a number of regular Hank volumes that would have benefited from this format, as they are sometimes fortified with copious stale dialog, meaningless descriptions, and lame jokes that seem to have been devised as filler so the audiobook would have 12 chapters and be at least 2 hours long. The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans and The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado come to mind in this regard.
But I have to give credit to John Erickson... after more than 20 years he can still write a good Hank story! Buy it and enjoy some smiles and laughs.
Customer Reviews:
the deeds were done and done again . . ........2007-08-18
Since the 40th anniversary of the publication of "In Watermelon Sugar" is just around the bend, it might be a good time to look back. Seems like we were all reading this little book in the year after the "Summer of Love", at least out here on the west coast. I remember being handed this little paperback with the words "It's real trippy, man".
This is Brautigan's dreamscape in poetic verse. The child-like prose is pretty close to reading a fairy tale. Brautigan hands the meaning of "In Watermelon Sugar" over to the reader - it's you who gets to decide the who and what of this story. Wow, trippy, man.
So, just what is Watermelon Sugar a metaphor for? Well, on page 38 we find: "We take the juice from the watermelons and cook it down until there's nothing left but sugar, and then we work it into the shape of this thing that we have: our lives"
The first part of this little book is all about tigers eating the author's parents; his arrival at this strange little commune place named
iDEATH; and his shacking up with a hippie chick named Pauline. The trout in the river have something to do with Watermelon Sugar but that could also have something to do with leftovers from Brautigan's first book.
The second part is about the bad people at iDEATH and how they eliminate themselves so that the author can resume making love to Pauline and get on with the writing of "In Watermelon Sugar".
Yep, we were all guilty of making Richard Brautigan rich so that he could go on writing some pretty mediocre stuff. His fellow writers didn't think much of Brautigan's writing abilities; but the publishers sure loved him for his sales potential. Anyway, if you've got an hour or two to kill, you could whiz though this little tale of how all the deeds were done and done again in watermelon sugar. What the hell . . .
Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
Still A Classic.......2007-06-09
I first read IN WATERMELON SUGAR in the very early 70's. It boggled my mind with the visual imagery that the prose produced. Visiting it again over 30 years later, Bruatigan still manages to amaze as he takes his reader into a world that is so gentle, it is frightening. With soft words and a dulcet tone, the author brings up sharp visions that are almost hypnotic in their hallucinatory magnificence. Long after you read this, words and snatches of phrases will remain with you so that the reader is haunted by the kindest of ghosts. I am surprised that Bruatigan is not better known, especially with the college set, today. His other books (Trout Fishing In America, The Abortion) are a bit more wordy and, while still fascinating, harder to digest, this novel always seemed to me to be the one to capture the "tune-in/ tune-out" sensibilities of America in the late sixties. In short, this is a book that everyone should read at least once.
This is such a great book...........2006-07-27
I think that this is one of those books that people try to overanalyze, which is a shame. This isn't a book that will change you as a person, there are enough of those out there, this is simply a book that will make you appreciate beauty. You feel how beautiful Ideath is, and by extension, you appreciate how beautiful our world is. That seems to be Brautigan's goal throughout all of his novels, and his poetry- simplicity and beauty. It works.
Brautigan Forever.......2006-05-14
I first read this novel back in high school and didn't really get it, but I liked the vibe. Reading it again in my thirties I got it better and enjoyed it even more. Anyone who lives in the Northwest and enjoys beat poetry with hippie undercurrents should take a big juicy bite out of In Watermelon Sugar--don't even bother spitting out the seeds, they're good too, and who knows what might grow in your tummy.
A strange trip.......2006-03-21
I read this book in a single one night-long binge while in the midst of a nasty relationship breakup. It hit me right between the eyes, and I still can not explain exactly why. Certain themes resonated strongly with my own circumstances at the time; and for whatever reason this book synergized with my state of mine with an emotional intensity I have never equalled since. I was left heartbroken yet exhilarated, emotionally devastated and yet healed. Fearing that, like the insights gained in travels with Lucy (that seem trivial by the light of day), the effect will be unrepeatable, I have not read the book since.
Product Description
Points of Departure
Book Description
There's a watermelon growing in the corner of the patch where the fence posts meet, and Jesse is waiting for it. Waiting for it to fill up with the cool summer rain and the hot summer sun. Waiting until at last it is ripe and ready for eating. Waiting until it is ready for her family's annual Watermelon day.
Customer Reviews:
"Watermelon, watermelon. It's a watermelon day!".......2004-07-18
Ah, the memories. When I was in the first grade in Orlando, Florida I took a watermelon seed and planted it in the little patch of earth between the front of the house and the sidewalk from the driveway. But then my father came back from Saudi Arabia on the last day of school (which is another story) and we moved to New Jersey and I never knew what happened to the watermelon seed that I planted, although just about every time I have watermelon I think back to that planted seed.
So I can identify with Jesse, who is impatiently waiting for the watermelon growing in the corner of the patch where the fence posts meet. That is because at the end of the summer is the family's annual "Watermelon Day." That is a big day for Jesse's family when cousins show up, her mom makes peach ice cream, Uncle Ike brings his banjo, and lots of softball gets played. Then, at the end of the day to top everything off, there is ice-cold watermelon to be enjoyed from the biggest one in the patch.
Kathi Appelt's "Watermelon Day," illustrated by Dale Gottlieb, follows Jesse's long summer of waiting for that watermelon to grow. Repeatedly Jesse asks "How much longer, Pappy?" and he patiently explains how long the process is, although Jesse is pretty sure that both she and the watermelon might burst from the sheer waiting of it all. Even on the final day there is much waiting to be endured before finally getting to eat a melon that is as sweet as the summer rain and a nighttime song.
"Watermelon Day" is a nice little story that shows the virtue of waiting patiently for something. Okay, maybe not exactly waiting patiently, but at least waiting without being totally annoying. Obviously this is a great book for those growing their first watermelon, but the idea that some things take time to happen is a lesson worth learning even if it involves something other than watermelons. This is another good effort from Appelt, who is a poet as well as a writer of children's books.
An absolute wonder..........1999-05-22
I had the opportunity to listen to Kathi Appelt read this story aloud, and it was wonderful. By hearing the author read it the way she meant for it to be heard, it made this story magical and special. I immediately felt compelled to buy my own copy to share with others. It is a wonderful way of capturing a child's impatience, and captures the wonder of a summer day.
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