Book Review - OLD ELM SPEAKS:TREE POEMS by Kristine O'Connell George

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
George, Kristine O'Connell. 2007. OLD ELM SPEAKS:TREE POEMS. Ill. by Kate Kiesler. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618752420


2. PLOT SUMMARY
George takes us into the world of trees: graceful; elegant; wise; silent keepers of time. From the very beginning, we recognize that the perspective is not always that of the author, but of the subject; the trees themselves.

Using various types of poetry, George takes us on a journey through various seasons, adventures and settings. Her poetry is sparse. However, what she says goes beyond mere words. Her poems can form an elbow and a knee, looping around a tree like a boy's sister. She often uses one word per line and sometimes she indents to create an effect.

The poetry appeals not only to nature lovers, but to anyone who, at any age, climbed a tree, hid behind a tree, jumped in a pile of leaves or had a tree house. Enjoy as George takes you back to the earth and a time when things were easier.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
I found this book to be a time machine. I was truly transported to the days when I built a fort with my brother and sister in an old willow tree by the creek. I smelled the pines as we went out and cut our own Christmas Tree.

George has a way of making her poetry so simple. It flows like a breeze through leaves. I closed my eyes several times and became part of the pictures. The illustrations by Kate Kiesler made this book even more real, however. The heron jumps out at you. I can hear the swish of the tails of the horses, Molly and Ed.

I do have a criticism, however. My younger sister is adopted and is black. Where is she in this book? Every child is white and most have light hair. Perhaps Kiesler could have thrown in a friend from a different racial background.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
* Starred review in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: "George plays nimbly with language and form. Her invented words in "Tree Traffic" seem simultaneously strange and familiar: squirrels are "commuters... rippling up and down,/ tails unfurled./ The treeway is/ heavily squirreled." George also surprises readers with creative rhyme schemes, such as that of "Cooperation," in which two horses, sharing the shade of one tree, stand "muzzle to rump/ rump to muzzle/ like a jigsaw puzzle."

* Starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "The selections beg to be read-aloud and shared. Free verse, haiku, and bits of rhymes and rhythms reflect the joy children feel as they play in and about or observe all types of trees throughout the year."


5. CONNECTIONS
* George has her own website that includes a Teacher's Guide. In it, she advises having the children pretend they are something else, inanimate or animate. A stapler? A squirrel? A cloud? And then ask questions like, "What is your day like?" or "What do you dream about?".

*Taking this one step further, play the game "What am I?". Using the technique above, children can act out what they are...using no words...and have classmates then try to guess the character.