I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

By Emily Dickinson.
Illustrated by Rex Schneider. Introduction by Richard B. Sewall. 1978, Stemmer House, Maryland.

20 February 2007

I’m going to be a father soon, so children’s books have been on my mind of late. This one’s illustrated almost entirely in color pencil and possibly pastel, and the goal is to make Emily Dickinson’s poetry more accessible to children. I think overall it works very well. In fact, I’m not embarrassed to admit that having everything drawn out for me helps a great deal; I don’t have the sort of brain that’s good at solving riddles, and many of Dickinson’s poems are just that. Maybe it’s cheating, but when I have an illustrator there to whisper unsubtly in my ear “It’s about a snake!” or “She’s describing a snowstorm,” it’s much easier for my mind to settle down and enjoy the poem line-by-line.
Schneider takes advantage of the fact that Dickinson never gave titles to her poems. Sometimes the last line of a poem will be withheld so you have to flip the page to see the resolution. (“It’s about a snake!”) Sometimes two short poems will share the same page. The overall effect is that the whole book is one big poem, a series of glances at the imaginative world of a bright and reflective woman you can’t help want to know better.
The introduction by Richard Sewall gives a good rundown on the both the rewards and punishments of reading poetry. It’s written in just the right tone for kids age 10-12, candid and not at all patronizing. And the glossary at the end gives great tailored descriptions of words kids might stumble over.
Schneider’s drawings of people come off a little stiff and the various elfin figures he uses to represent winds, frost and seasons have a little too much Disney in them for my taste, but the overall effect of seeing Emily Dickinson’s thoughts on nature rendered on the page is so refreshing and fun as to rinse the mind of all trifling concerns about petty details. This is a book to be thoroughly enjoyed.