"A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams" by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Another Caldecott Honor book from 2009, this picture book biography would need older sensibilities to appreciate it, I think. The story of poet William Carlos Williams (National Book Award Winner, 1950), we initially see a young boy who *loves* words. Written with a true nod to the style of Mr. Williams, the artwork consists of images that look like they are drawn by a young boy, and mixed with ephemera one might find on the desk of a writer. In one illustration, young Willie listens to the sound of nature around him as words run like water down the stream beside him. Complete with a nice little biography and timeline at the end of the book, his poems are blended with the artwork as the story progresses. I learned to appreciate this man for his rather unremarkable life and clean poetry as I flipped through these pages. If nothing else, I learned that this was truly “the guy next door” and not an erudite scholar despite a significant amount of schooling (he was a small-town doctor). If you would like an insight into the author of some tremendously familiar poems, then check out this book.