To Go Singing Through the World: The Childhood of Pablo Neruda

by Deborah Kogan Ray

Hardcover, 2006

Status

Available

Call number

921 NER

Call number

921 NER

Local notes

921 NER

Barcode

5545

Genres

Publication

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (2006), Edition: 1st, 40 pages

Description

Account of the childhood of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2006

Physical description

40 p.; 9.04 inches

User reviews

LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
Pairing selections from the poet's autobiographical writing with her own narrative, Deborah Kogan Ray - whose other biographical picture-books include such titles as Wanda Gág: The Girl Who Lived to Draw and Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer - tells the story of Pablo
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Neruda's youth in To Go Singing Through the World. Chronicling the shy young boy's childhood in the Chilean frontier-town of Temuco, his loving relationship with his step-mother, who introduced him to the stories of Chile's indigenous people (she was Mapuche herself), it also highlights the early years of his life-long friendship with fellow poet Gabriela Mistral, who was the principal of the girls' division of his school, and who became his mentor.

I enjoyed both the dual-strand narrative and the artwork in this book, and was struck by how all three combine flawlessly to capture the intensity of a young Neruda's feelings, and his inward-drawn early life. How interesting that such a phenomenally gifted poet, someone known for his strong voice (even if only his literary voice), was so quiet and withdrawn, as a child. Ray's book makes you feel that it is this very solitude that created the poet - an idea I find rather appealing. After all, before one can truly communicate, one must understand, and listening and observation play such an important part in building understanding. In any case, this is just an immensely engaging biography of an important figure in world literature, and is a book I would recommend to all young poets, and fans of Pablo Neruda.
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LibraryThing member mirikayla
There were several different biographies of Pablo Neruda on the shelf, so I thought I'd compare them and I'm glad I did. This one is even better than the first one (which I also liked); the illustrations are just gorgeous, and sections of Neruda's poetry and prose are blended into the narrative
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text. It's lovely.
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Pages

40

Rating

(8 ratings; 4.2)
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