The Road Not Taken: A Picture Book

by Robert Frost, Vivian Mineker (Illustrator)

Overview

For all of life's adventures comes this beautifully illustrated companion inspired by Robert Frost's perennial poem "The Road Not Taken." Heartwarming illustrations of a young boy journeying through a yellow wood accompany the original text of the poem. When a fork in the road arises for the boy, so too does the first of life's many choices. And as the poem progresses, so does the boy's life: college, career, marriage, family, loss, and, by journey's end, the sweet satisfaction of a life fully lived. The first children's book ever made of Frost's famous poem, this moving presentation makes an inspiring gift for graduation, marriage, career moves, and all of life's exciting roads.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641701075
Publisher:	Familius
Publication date:	03/01/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	268,433
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Robert Frost is one of America's most beloved poets. Born in 1874 in San Francisco, California, he spent most of his life in rural New England. His poems frequently drew on his rural surroundings to teach deeper principles on life. Some of his most famous poems include "Mending Wall", "Birches", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken" featured in this book. By his passing in 1963, Frost had been awarded four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, received the Congressional Gold Medal, and been nominated thirty-one times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Vivian Mineker is a Taiwanese American illustrator from Taipei and Portland, OR, currently living in Slovenia. Her process usually starts with watercolor and colored pencils and finishes on the computer for fine details and adjustments.

Editorial Reviews

…does a wonderful job of reintroducing a well-known poem without altering a single word. The choice to redivide stanzas and to rebreak lines, as well as to set the poem in the contemporary-feeling world of Mineker's soft palette, invites a fresh reading.

The New York Times Book Review - Laurel Snyder

02/18/2019

Golden, autumnal shades by Mineker mark Frost’s archetypal “wood,” as a red-haired child with a canine companion walks toward two roads that diverge. Seen from high above, the child resembles an abstract shape faced with the choice between two distinct paths. The boy’s choice leads to pivotal life moments: in one series of images, he grows older as he plays with tinker toys, then holds a book of architecture, then graduates from school. On another spread, chasing his still-spry dog leads him to meet his life partner, which lead to children, grandchildren, and old age. Mineker captures the poignancy and weight of Frost’s most well-known poem while delivering an accessible story of choices and personal journeys to young readers. Ages 5–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"An impressive treetop view shows boy and beagle confronting the diverging path, emphasizing the magnitude of choice... A favorite Frost poem reveals how serendipitous choice affects a lifetime. (Picture book. 4-8)" 
- Kirkus Reviews

"THE ROAD NOT TAKEN... with illustrations by Vivian Mineker, does a wonderful job of reintroducing a well-known poem without altering a single word...This is a book that begs rereading."
- Laurel Snyder, The New York Times 

"Golden, autumnal shades by Mineker mark Frost’s archetypal “wood,” as a red-haired child with a canine companion walks toward two roads that diverge. Seen from high above, the child resembles an abstract shape faced with the choice between two distinct paths. The boy’s choice leads to pivotal life moments: in one series of images, he grows older as he plays with tinker toys, then holds a book of architecture, then graduates from school. On another spread, chasing his still-spry dog leads him to meet his life partner, which lead to children, grandchildren, and old age. Mineker captures the poignancy and weight of Frost’s most well-known poem while delivering an accessible story of choices and personal journeys to young readers. Ages 5–8. (Mar.)"
- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN... with illustrations by Vivian Mineker, does a wonderful job of reintroducing a well-known poem without altering a single word...This is a book that begs rereading.

The New York Times - Laurel Snyder

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN... with illustrations by Vivian Mineker, does a wonderful job of reintroducing a well-known poem without altering a single word...This is a book that begs rereading.

April 5, 2019 - The New York Times

04/01/2019

K-Gr 2-Frost's classic poem is interpreted by illustrator Mineker in this glowing picture book version. A modern-day boy wearing an orange striped hoodie and a light denim backpack stumbles upon the famous fork in the road. His choice leads him line-by-line and page-by-page through adolescence and adulthood. The watercolor and pencil artwork features vignettes of mostly yellows and blues with the young man finding a career and love, having children, aging, losing a spouse, and enjoying his later years surrounded by family. The main character has light skin, and his eventual family has a subtle variety of skin colors. The lack of black outlines allows for an appropriately thematic flow in the stylized but organic shapes of the illustrated people and environments. Single-poem picture books based on works for adults are often lovely but inaccessible to young audiences, as the greater message requires a mature perspective. But casually added to teen or secondary school collections, this Frost could be lost, dismissed as looking childish. VERDICT School and public libraries, regardless of level, should consider this title for poetry collections and be prepared to hand-sell to educators.-Elaine Fultz, Madison Jr. Sr. High School, Middletown, OH

School Library Journal

Robert Frost’s familiar 1915 poem presents enigmatic choices for an elementary-age boy.

A red-haired elementary-age boy trekking through golden woods with a beagle comes to a place where “two roads diverged.” Wishing he could “travel both,” the boy studies one road and then chooses the less-worn path, opting to keep the other road for “another day,” knowing he’s unlikely to “ever come back” and taking the road “less traveled by” could “make all the difference.” Richly hued illustrations in a palette of yellows and blues rely on simple rounded shapes, flat patterns, varying perspectives, and single- and double-page spreads to provide a possible context for Frost’s spare verse. Dwarfed by stylized trees resembling giant yellow toadstools, the boy begins his journey wearing a striped hoodie, blue backpack, jeans, and red boots. An impressive treetop view shows boy and beagle confronting the diverging path, emphasizing the magnitude of choice. The boy picks up fallen leaves, ponders two unknown roads, selects a leaf for his backpack, and proceeds along his chosen path. As he journeys, scenes from his ensuing life unfold, carrying him from childhood to becoming a young man with a family and eventually an elderly man, still musing about the choice he made in the woods that indeed changed everything. Inexplicably, his hair darkens from red to brown with a single page turn, which is likely to befuddle more than one reader.

A favorite Frost poem reveals how serendipitous choice affects a lifetime. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews