Ballad of Biddy Early

By Nancy Willard and Nancy Willard Price

A collection of poems about Biddy Early, the Wise Woman of Clare, and her animal, human, and supernatural associates. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394984145
• ISBN13: 9780394984148
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Great, challenging poetry for children and adults

Nancy Willard is probably best known as a children's poet for her justly celebrated William Blake's Inn, but to my taste this book surpasses the better-known one. Like William Blake's Inn, this book consists of a cycle of poems, most of them roughly in ballad style, some mainly narrative and some mainly lyrical, some more whimsical than others, some quite complex. The central character is a "wise woman of Clare" who communes with animals and helps those in need (including a gypsy queen and a poor man who has killed his landlord). The poems are far from simple, but they are consistently affecting and satisfying both to children and to adults. I have loved reading it to my children, and I have found it to be a wonderful introduction to the pleasures of "real" poetry for them - this is real poetry, not doggerel at all, although written to be appreciated by children. I wish I could find more copies in print.