Rosemary Benét (1898–1962)

7. I absolutely enjoyed this poetic book taken back to a historical figure. Johnny Appleseed, the main character, is believable and authentic. The vibrant illustrations of Johnny Appleseed’s journeys to harvest apples are suitable. Something in which sparked my interest was the apple printed as the first letter of each word to begin the passages. The whole book exhibits a positive outlook in life. Rhythm, imagery, and meaning, the elements of the poem, altogether scaffold the big idea. The show more way Johnny Appleseed was portrayed through poetry offered a famous personality that highlighted kindness to nature and other individuals holds a good spirit. show less

This is a wonderful little book of poetry for kids. Each poem is a minibiography about an important figure in American history. Although many books around the time of publication (my edition was published in the 1960s) do not feature much in the way of important women in US history, this book features several poems about famous women.

The retelling of Johnny Appleseed was done in entertaining way. They used rhyming throughout the story which was very engaging. It was put in a simple way that children could understand. There were different rhymes throughout the story that were very catchy. For example, "He has no statue. He has no tomb. He has his apple trees Still in bloom." When I read rhyming stories such as this one, they are very interesting and help with remembering facts about a specific person. This book gave just show more enough information to get the story across and make it interesting for children.

"For fifty years over Of harvest and dew, He planted his apples Where no apples grew. show less

This book was very different from the other poetry books I have read. This one book about Johnny Appleseed was written in poetry form. The book contained 40 pages, each paged consisted of four line stanzas. There wasn't much rhyme in the poem. The illustrations were beautiful and very appropriate for the book. I would read this to students when discussing famous pioneers.