Johnny Appleseed: A Poem

Originally posted on Creative Madness Mama. Hello friends! As of January 2019, I have an affiliate account with Memoria Press. If you're here, you know how passionate I am about Memoria Press. Please bless my family by using our links.


We are starting Memoria Press Second Grade Enrichment Guide and the first book selection for our studies is this one, Johnny Appleseed: A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh. The first discovery I was surprised by is that Reeve is actually a female, which I wouldn't have assumed from the name. After we read through this one, I discovered there is actually an animated story version of it streaming on Discovery Education. As I had one day left before our summer free trial subscription expired we were able to watch it (multiple times actually by request). While it is a poem, it was not overly poetic in my opinion, but told a story well. There was a repeat character of a girl to old woman Hannah Goodwin that John Chapman visited, as she grew so did her apple trees and her gratitude for Johnny Appleseed.

The pictures in this book provide for endless looking and spying of this and that through out. The creatures are so small and so many and it is very neat to discover. The poetic prose tells a good portion of Johnny Appleseed's story, but the Afterword makes it complete and gives more facts and details on his life. I enjoyed the way that Reeve put together this tale of Johnny Appleseed and the illustrations of Kathy Jacobsen truly pull it together. Once again, Memoria Press has chosen a great recommendation for a spring board of a unit study. Reading this book alongside Apples by Jacqueline Farmer was uber fun and educational.

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This review was originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.