Children's Book Review: A River of Words

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans, $17, 978080285302/0802853021, 32 pp., ages 7-up, September)

Here is a picture-book biography of a poet to pore over, just as poetry demands us to pore over each line, each phrase, each rhyme (or nonrhyme). Do not be put off by this book's cover: the passion of both author and artist for their subject shine through on every page--in the pacing, in the layering of the compositions and, fittingly, in the carefully chosen details. "Like the other boys in Rutherford, New Jersey, Willie Williams loved to play baseball and to race his friends up and down the street," begins the story of William Carlos Williams. In emphasizing his nickname and interests, Bryant (The Trial) makes her subject accessible to any child. "But when the other boys went inside, Willie stayed outside. . . . In those days, just beyond town, there were still many wild places for Willie to explore." Author and artist subtly convey how essential these unstructured afternoons by the Passaic River would become in the shaping of Williams' close observations and ideas. When Willie grows older and "there [is] less time to wander through the woods and fields or to nap by the river," the poetry Mr. Abbott reads in English class provides a refuge for him ("The gentle sounds and shifting rhythms of the poems were like the music of the river").

Bryant depicts young Willie as a boy destined to become the poet who would describe the movements of a bird outside his window, the taste of a sweet plum from the icebox, the clangs, siren, howls and rumbling wheels of a red fire truck. Sweet (The Boy Who Drew Birds), through Willie's notebook entries and sketches, hints at his scientific leanings in her collage illustrations. It seems perfectly natural that Willie would decide to become a doctor. A point of tension arises from that decision, however: "Willie liked the idea of healing people and of providing for a family. But could he do both and still write poetry?" Yet Bryant and Sweet have set the stage for a man who has always relied upon the energy and inspiration he derives from the creation of his poetry ("No matter how many babies he delivered, no matter how many sick people he cured, Willie could not stop writing poems"). Rereadings offer additional gifts: Sweet pairs a portrait of Williams with fellow university students Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle, and the artist Charles Demuth opposite the text of the poet's ode to the fire truck in "The Great Figure," intermingled with the palette and elements from DeMuth's painting "I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold." Adults may well pick up on the hints, but children can discover the link in a triple timeline at the book's close (which correlates the poet's publication dates, personal milestones and world events). Williams' life becomes a model for children about just how much depends on that "red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens." While he was busy delivering babies and saving lives, this concise biography suggests, William Carlos Williams was also taking time out to make meaning of his own life.--Jennifer M. Brown