Emily - by Michael Bedard (Paperback)

About the Book

A young girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, wonders about the reclusive woman wholives across the street in a yellow house surrounded by a tall hedge. One dayher mother goes there to play piano, and the girl comes face to face with oneof the country's greatest poets--Emily Dickinson.

Book Synopsis

From Michael Bedard and two-time Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Barbara Cooney comes a story about American poet Emily Dickinson and the young girl who befriends her.

What if your neighbor were the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson? And what if one day she sent a letter inviting your mother to pay her a visit? A little girl who lives across the street from the mysterious Emily gets a chance to meet the poet when her mother goes to play the piano for her. There, the girl sneaks a gift up to Emily, who listens from the landing, and in return, Emily gives the girl a precious gift of her own--the gift of poetry.

Review Quotes

"This fictionalized encounter . . . is, like a Dickinson sonnet, a quiet gem: unassuming upon first glance, it is in fact deeply lustrous, with new facets becoming apparent the longer one looks.."--Publishers Weekly

"In this imaginative and unusual picture book . . . the language of the text is lyrical . . . The illustrations convey a sense of place and time long ago, from drawing rooms to clothing. This is a picture book to read aloud and share...[Readers] will find that Bedard's charming story demystifies the person and offers some understanding of her odd behavior."--School Library Journal

"Two time Caldecott award winning illustrator Barbara Cooney's richly detailed oil paintings enhance the moving story of Dickinson's extraordinary private life."--Children's Literature

About the Author

Michael Bedard was born and raised in Toronto, where he still lives. His novels include Stained Glass, A Darker Magic, Painted Devil, and Redwork, which received the Governor General's Literary Award and the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year Award for Children. He has also written several acclaimed picture books, including The Clay Ladies, which received the Toronto IODE Book Award, and Emily, a story about Emily Dickinson, illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

Barbara Cooney traveled the world, lived in a house by the sea in Maine, and made the world more beautiful through her art. She was a two-time Caldecott Medal winner, for Chanticleer and the Fox in 1959 and Ox-Cart Man in 1980. Her beloved book Miss Rumphius was the winner of the American Book Award in 1982. Barbara Cooney died in 2000 at the age of eighty-two.