A Review of Seed by Seed by Esmé Raji Codell, illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins

This picture book biography based on what is known about John Chapman’s life is unabashedly instructive. I’m not fond of picture books that pretend not to be preachy when they actually are preachy, but Seed by Seed is different. Codell basically says, “What messages did John Chapman and his life teach? What can we learn from him?” Then she proceeds to tell us—in a way that focuses on the “legacy” part of her subtitle, “The Legend and Legacy of John ‘Appleseed’ Chapman.”

One reason the book is successful is because of Codell’s calm poetic voice. She begins:

“When we look out of our windows,

what do we see?

Tall buildings, stores, and parking lots.

Buses and cars speeding by.

Red lights and green lights and yellow lights and white lights.

Our country is hard and electrical and moving.

But it was not always this way.

Once it was a tangle,

a tangle,

a tangle,

of roots and branches and wide tree trunks.

Once, you could not hear the engines of airplanes in the sky,

or the sounds of phones ringing.

Maybe you could catch the creaking of a wagon wheel,

straining against the ruts in the road,

or the fall of an axe against wood.”

Let’s give credit to Lynne Rae Perkins as well. As these lines progress, each page shows us a brother and sister in front of a window. On the first page we look in at them. On the next we are behind them, seeing their view out the window. Both of these pages are presented in a modern cityscape. But over the next three pages, the view through the window changes, and then the children’s clothing changes, until they—and we—are inside a cabin with the cold of winter swirling in through the door. The children go outside. On the next page, the children are no longer visible but the scene is set, and we hear of the man named John Chapman, “better known as Johnny Appleseed.” Such a journey through time could have felt contrived, but thanks to the artistry of Codell’s words and Perkins’ illustrations, it is utterly satisfying.

Another page, and we learn a little about Chapman’s early life. Codell tells us that many of the things we hear about him are “three parts legend, one part fact… But the man, John Chapman, was real… born on September 26, 1774, in Massachusetts.” The author explains that Chapman was a hero because he lived by example. She says that these are five footsteps he left for us to fill:

1. Use what you have.

2. Share what you have.

3. Respect nature.

4. Try to make peace when there is war.

5. You can reach your destination by taking small steps.

As the book continues, Codell shows us how John Chapman taught these principles by the life that he led. I learned some things I didn’t know about Johnny Appleseed. For example, he got the apple seeds to start his planting project from cider press owners who would have thrown the seeds away otherwise. Johnny had eleven brothers and sisters. It’s said he broke books up and loaned the chapters to settlers. He was friends with both settlers and Indians and would warn either group if the other were going to attack. He was a vegetarian in an era when most people weren’t.

Lynne Rae Perkins illustrates many facets of Chapman’s life using watercolor and gouache. However, one page is done on burlap, two include woodcarving, one incorporates old book pages, and a spread near the end of the book is a piece of embroidery a little like the samplers from colonial America. The paintings show a lively Johnny interacting with settlers, Indians, animals, and of course trees. Perkins gives us nature in a world that was not yet covered over by cities, so one would expect dull browns and greens. Yet her colors are relatively bright. Although the illustrator does not actually paint in an American primitive style, I think she hints at it with those colors, the layout of some scenes, and the mixed media pieces she includes.

A note at the end of the book challenges us to do something small to make the world better. We are presented with a few craft ideas for writing and posting our plans. Codell also gives us an apple pie recipe and the Johnny Appleseed song.

The biographies I read of John Chapman when I was young were even more boring than I thought compared to a book like this. Here’s a good line to end on: “He grew so many apple trees that chances are any apple you eat today is from a descendant of a tree planted by Johnny Appleseed.” Bite into an apple—and read Seed by Seed.

Hey, and take a look at Esmé’s website, especially her blog.

A Review of Jane Austen: A Life Revealed by Catherine Reef

Reading this book reminded me just of my favorite biography of Shakespeare, Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage. In a slim volume, Bryson basically explains that we know hardly anything about the bard himself. He provides the scraps of information we do have plus some nice historical context, then spends the rest of the book debunking common assertions that many believe to be facts. For example, it turns out none of the supposed portraits of Shakespeare can be authenticated in the least.

Even though she lived a few hundred years later, when better records were kept, Jane Austen left behind surprisingly scant information other than her novels themselves—though heaven knows, we're all grateful for that!

Still, Reef stitches together what is known and creates a surprisingly pleasing piece of needlework. We learn about the various members of Austen's family, things she said as quoted by family members, places she moved and when, and impressions of her from cousins and acquaintances, including those who disliked her.

It would have been wonderful to have her letters, of course, but her sister and other family members deliberately destroyed them after her death.

The author points out that Jane's books seem to give us a different impression of the woman than her family's descriptions of her, but then, there's a long tradition of not speaking ill of the dead. And perhaps Jane saved her finest, even edgiest wit, for her books rather than her conversations. Here's the passage I'm thinking of:

Her family described Jane Austen to the world as they wanted her to be remembered. "Her sweetness of temper never failed," wrote her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. "Faultless herself, as nearly as human nature can be, she always sought, in the faults of others, something to excuse, to forgive or forget," wrote her brother Henry. Added one of her nieces, "I do not suppose she ever in her life said a sharp thing."

Not ever? It is hard to believe that such a sweet, forgiving creature would write lines such as these:

I do not want people to be very Agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

Mrs. Allan was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them.

The other portraits Reef paints are of Austen's books—plot summaries, when each was written, what Jane said about them, if anything, and comments made in family correspondence about how the writer's nearest and dearest felt about each one. For example, Reef tells us what her family thought of Austen's most universally admired book. Recall that in Austen's day, it was considered slightly scandalous for a woman to write a book, so it was usually kept quiet, with the book being published under a pen name.

The Austens all liked Pride and Prejudice. Jane read the book aloud to her niece Fanny Knight, who was often at Chawton. "[Aunt Jane] & I had a delicious morning together," Fanny noted in her diary. Charles Austen wrote that some of his naval-officer friends had read and enjoyed it. Jane tried to confine knowledge of her authorship to family and close friends, but word was getting out. "The Secret has spread so far as to be scarcely the Shadow of a secret now!" she wrote to Frank Austen. Their brother Henry had the toughest time keeping mum. More than once, Jane continued, Henry has heard people praise Pride and Prejudice, "& what does he do in the warmth of his Brotherly vanity and Love, but immediately tell them who wrote it!"

Readers who are familiar with Austen's work may feel impatient upon encountering Reef's summaries of the novels, but the intended teen audience is likely to appreciate the way these tie the chronology of Austen's life as a writer together.

Reef also includes a number of relevant images, ranging from the only known portrait of Jane (supposedly a poor likeness) to a still from the Keira Knightley P&P. The author threads her account with notes about the culture and the era, all of which make it that much easier to understand Jane. She explains, for instance, how much the Georgians loved Bath—although Jane did not. And she describes the etiquette required from a young woman dealing with a suitor before noting that "Jane and [one-time suitor] Tom skirted the rules of decorum, attracting the attention of their elders."

I very much enjoyed getting a better picture of Jane Austen, the person, as I read Catherine Reef's clear, pleasant account (155 pages plus references). For anyone who loves Pride and Prejudice—the book or the movie—and certainly for the older child or teen doing an author report on this famous writer, Jane Austen: A Life Revealed, is a book worth reading.