"It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are." E.E. Cummings

There are four things poet E.E. Cummings loved: elephants, lower case letters, experimenting with word sounds, and spring! This biographical picture book explores the life of E.E. Cummings, a talented and unique poet who lived around the turn of the century. His love for words started as a child and continued throughout his entire life. His poems really stretch the meaning of language in unique ways, and like most artists who challenge the status quo, his work was rejected by publisher after publisher. He refused to conform, kept writing his way, and became one of the best American poets of all time. I always fall for stories about people who didn't succeed at first but were too stubborn to quit. This is definitely one of those stories.

This book does a great job of exploring the poet's unique style in a way that children will understand and enjoy. The pictures are fun. The story is fun. The reason for this is Cummings was a fun, joyful person, and his poetry stands today as a testament to that. Here is one of his best poems and a perfect theme for these days where spring is waiting just off stage waiting to burst in with its flowers and sunshine!

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

Any poem where I can read the word puddle-wonderul is a poem for me! Do you have a picture book about a poet that you love? I would love to find more.