Ryan Van Cleave has a passion for writing and poetry
Ryan Van Cleave has a passion for writing, his own and that of others. He’s a writing coach, a teacher, a writing program coordinator, and a speaker. He’s written and produced a number of children’s books about poetry, like The Illustrated Emily Dickinson.
It’s an oversized, colorful book, likely aimed at ages 5 to 9. It includes what Van Cleave calls “25 essential poems” by Dickinson. The poems include some of the poet’s best known works – “Success is counted sweetest,” “Because I could not stop for death,” “I never saw a Moor,” and “A Light exists in Spring.”
Van Cleave doesn’t simply reprint the poems. The book is designed to introduce children to poetry and to Emily Dickinson. Each poem is accompanied by three questions about the poem itself, and then a more open-ended question that asks the reader to imagine something based on the poem. And certain words in the poem are highlighted and then defined in a sidebar.
Here’s an example, from “A Light exists in Spring”:
The illustration for the poem
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.
It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.
Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —
A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.
The questions asked are why include scientific and religious references in a poem about nature, and what else is lost when the light goes away. The “imagine” question is, “If this poem were edible, what would it taste like?” The two highlighted words that are defined are “encroached” and “Sacrament.”
The book also includes “Ten Things to Know About Emily Dickinson,” a short commentary on each of the poems, references for additional reading, and a bibliography.
While the language is simple enough for a young reader to read it alone, the book seems designed for an older reader to read it with the child. And while the emphasis is on the text, each poem is accompanied by a delightful collage-like illustration that’s as engaging as the poem itself. The initial simplicity of Dickinson’s poems seems almost designed for both reading aloud to a younger or beginning reader and imaginative illustrations.
Ryan Van Cleave
Van Cleave leads the creative writing major at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. He’s also the Picture Book Whisperer ™, helping celebrities write and sell children’s books. His clients have included Olympic medal winners, NFL players, Hollywood actors, and TV personalities. He’s written a number of books on writing and video games, textbooks, poetry anthologies, his own poetry, and illustrated editions of the poems of Robert Frost and Lewis Carroll.
My own grandchildren are likely past, or just past, the age of sitting still (or not rolling their eyes) while their grandfather reads stories or poems to them. They would have liked The Illustrated Emily Dickinson. Their grandfather has reached the age, however, where he can thoroughly enjoy it.
Photo by NathalieSt, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.
How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
- An Anthology on Reading and Writing Poetry - May 1, 2025
- Poets and Poems: Lisa Marie Basile and “Saint Of” - April 29, 2025
- Poets and Poems: Sandra Marchetti and “Diorama” - April 24, 2025
Bethany R. says
Looks lovely and intriguing. Glad you’re enjoying this book. I think I would too. Reminds me a bit of when C.S. Lewis said, “Someday you’ll be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
Megan Willome says
Oh, I will be checking out this one, along with the others in the series. I love that he includes questions.
I wish I had been introduced to Dickinson when I was young, with a book like this. It’s taken me so long to fall in love with her, because I found her so intimidating. Something like this would have taken away the fear.