by: May Swenson


Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780874216486
ISBN: 0874216486
Label: Utah State University Press
Manufacturer: Utah State University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 32
Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Reading Level: All Ages
Sales Rank: 2318705
Studio: Utah State University Press

Can it be there was only one
summer that I was ten?

First published in 1956, May Swenson’s 'The Centaur' remains one of her most popular and most anthologized poems. This is its first appearance as a picture book for children. In images bright and brisk and tangible, the poet re-creates the joy of riding a stick horse through a small-town summer. We find ourselves, with her, straddling “a long limber horse with . . . a few leaves for a tail,” and pounding through the lovely dust along the path by the old canal. As her shape shifts from child to horse and back, we know exactly what she feels.

Sherry Meidell’s water-color illustrations perfectly convey the wit and beauty of May Swenson’s poem. These are playful, satisfying images full of vitality and imagination. Meidell handles the joy of poem’s  fantasy and the joy of its occasional naughtiness with equal success.