Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty
Grade 2–4—A gentle tribute to Emma Lazarus, very much in the style of Barbara Cooney'sEleanor(Viking, 1996). Glaser describes the poet as a child of privilege who was moved by the plight of immigrants in the 1880s. On a visit to Ward's Island, "her heart hurt to see them." She began helping them to learn English and get jobs, and she increased awareness of their plight through her poetry and other writings. Asked, along with other writers of the time such as Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, to write a poem to raise money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, she composed one that became part of the fabric of America. Nivola's delicately composed watercolor and gouache paintings appear in frames on each page, with a few lines of potent text in clean white space either underneath or to the side. The pictures, with their slight folk-art feel, capture both the time and action of the story, while the text illuminates the woman. An author's note and the full text of the poem complete the book. A worthwhile addition for most collections.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.