Wednesday, January 5, 2011

6th January Epiphany Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431) Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)





Fog

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbour and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer who was best known for his poetry. There would be very few poetry anthologies for children which do not have Fog or some other poem of his. Fog is perfect for learning and reciting. It is also good for teaching children about the power of imagery.

It is Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, the time when the Three Wise Men came to visit baby Jesus in his manger, time to take down the Christmas decorations and time to think about going back to school. I wrote about Epiphany yesterday.

Joan of Arc, known as St Joan because she is a Catholic saint was a French heroine of the Hundred Years' War. Born a peasant, she led the French army to several victories before being captured, tried by the English and left to burn on a stake when she was only nineteen years old. Joan of Arc's story has been told in picture book format several times. See:
Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett
Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley
Joan of Arc: Heroine of France by Ann Tomert and Michael Garland, and
Joan of Arc by Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman (this has a longer text, but very dynamic illustrations)

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