Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Shrinking Walden into picture book size is somewhat like trying to fit Moby Dick into an aquarium. Still, Lowe's selections from Thoreau's iconoclastic work will give children a brief taste of this classic. Using only quotations from the original work, Lowe tells the story of Thoreau's year in the woods, emphasizing his descriptions of nature,stet comma and action rather than his philosophical musings. Readers see the young Thoreau putting shingles on his roof, hoeing beans, welcoming a stranger; they can revel in the natural wonders he describes--the ``whip-poor-wills,'' in summer, the drifting snow in winter, the ice breaking in the pond in spring. Sabuda's superb linoleum-cut prints lend a hard-edged brilliance to the dark woods--where sunlight is filtered through etched leaves, and moonlight shimmers on the waters of the pond made famous by a young man's experiment with life. All ages. (Nov.)
Library Journal
Walden's original publisher releases an annotated edition to celebrate the book's 150th anniversary.
School Library Journal
YA-An unintended effect of the cultural diversity curriculum is that we lose touch with seminal works such as Walden. Written for an audience thoroughly versed in Western tradition, many of Thoreau's metaphors and references are unrecognizable to today's students. Though some references were intended to prove his erudition, one is chagrined at the number of necessary explications of standard classical concepts. Though some annotations are noisy comments upon Thoreau's life, most are informative and enhance the work. Many YAs will view Thoreau's natural essays as he intended, thanks to Harding's efforts. A must for libraries.-Hugh McAloon, Prince William County Public Library, VA
OCTOBER 2009 - AudioFile
Thoreau's famous book about two years in a Massachusetts cabin, while partly a nature study, is primarily about how to live and a critique of how most people go about it. Narrator Robin Field's expressiveness is excellent, his pacing fine, his understanding of the text clear. His reading of the famous, and still radical, essay on civil disobedience is direct and down-to-earth, keeping all Thoreau’s good qualities. However, in his reading of WALDEN, his Thoreau sounds alternately self-righteous and whiny or pompously elevated and "poetic." Field intones, as if lecturing or preaching, in an affectedly rhetorical manner. It’s true that Thoreau can be preachy and priggish, but in WALDEN, Field makes him seem so even when he isn't. W.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine