There Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: The Life of Woody Guthrie - Hardcover

Neimark, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689833695 ISBN 13: 9780689833694

Publisher: Atheneum, 2002

Synopsis

Provides the biography of the singer of many classic American songs, such as "This Land Is Your Land", through a look at his childhood years in early 1900s Oklahoma and his diverse experiences in America during the Depression and World War II that inspired his working-class ballads.

About this title

About the Author:

Anne E. Neimark is the author of ten award-winning biographies for young people, including Touch of Light: The Story of Louis Braille; Sigmund Freud: The World Within; Diego Rivera: Artist of the People; Myth Maker: J. R. R. Tolkien; and Wild Heart, the Story of Joy Adamson, Author of Born Free. The mother of three children, Anne lives with her husband near Chicago, Illinois.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6-12. Woody Guthrie sang, "Wherever you look in the day or night, that's where I'm gonna be." In children's publishing today, those words are particularly true, as this is the third Guthrie biography to appear in the past 18 months: first came Bonnie Christensen's Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People (2001), which was followed by Elizabeth Partridge's This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie [BKL Ap 1 02]. This book spans Guthrie's life in succinct chapters that begin with riveting, almost sensationalized accounts of Guthrie's boyhood family tragedies. Neimark occasionally describes gestures, thoughts, and feelings without documentation, and her language is, at times, overly dramatic, even novelistic. What's best is Guthrie's own voice. Neimark uses frequent quotations from Guthrie's autobiographies, song lyrics, and other sources to help tell the story, giving readers an intimate sense of the man's complicated, free-wheeling genius. Partridge's title is a more comprehensive portrait of Guthrie's adult life, with a richer selection of photographs and a fuller sense of the larger historical context, but Neimark's focused storytelling will capture readers. A final section considers Guthrie's contemporary legacy and provides a helpful family tree. There is obvious overlap among the titles, but each book gives readers a particular insight into a fascinating artist and his profound influence. Gillian Engberg
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About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689833695
• ISBN 13: 9780689833694
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128