Synopsis
Go back in time to a sleepy Mississippi River town
The townfolk of a small village on the banks of the upper Mississippi come vividly alive at the sound of a whistle and the holler of "Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-comin'!" The incoming vessel is filled with passengers and cargo, and at a rapid speed, things are unloaded and loaded - but before you know it, the village is once again at its previous sleepy pace.
Inspired by Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Jill Esbaum has crafted a skillful, spare poem, and Adam Rex has created gorgeous paintings that do homage to Norman Rockwell.
School Library Journal
K-Gr 5-Set in 1867, this story of the fictional S.L. Clemens uses verse to describe the excitement that the brief docking of the packet brought to otherwise tranquil towns along the mighty Mississippi. The terse, highly descriptive text features an ABB rhyme scheme with a catchy rhythm and introduces readers to interesting vocabulary. Colorful words such as "galoots" and "roustabouts" are not defined in the verses, but the accompanying illustrations make grasping the overall context easy. Rex's realistic paintings begin and end as quarter-page snapshots done largely in sepia tones and underscored by a triplet of verse with extensive surrounding white space. This layout clearly shows the calm before the boat's arrival and after its departure. The pictures grow larger as the boat reaches shore and become full-page color spreads with verses superimposed on the images when the Clemens is in port-emphasizing both its impact on the town and the hustle-and-bustle pace of laborers and travelers. As the steamboat pulls away, the illustrations begin to shrink. Well-drawn details abound, making this an excellent resource for historical study. Whether as an introduction to the history of river travel or as background for a Twain classic, this salute to a bygone transportation era is sure to engage children as they, too, thrill to the sound of that once-familiar call, "Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-comin'!"-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.