Canoe Days

Canoe Days by Gary Paulsen, ill. by Ruth Wright Paulsen

            Picture Book—Grades PreK-3

            Rating: 4 ½ Stars (out of 5)

            Summary:  A man in a canoe glides along a lake, enjoying and becoming one with the peace and beauty of the nature surrounding him.

            I felt an instant connection with Gary Paulsen’s Canoe Days. My family camps and enjoys the outdoors to the fullest extent, and so I share an appreciation for the beauty that Paulsen describes in this story. When I was young, my family took many vacations to Wisconsin, where we stayed on a lake and went canoeing as a tradition. The lines are poetically written and seem to glide across the pages and off of my tongue to match the seamless gliding of the canoe across the lake’s surface. Paulsen also personifies the many animals encountered in the story, which helps to bring them to life, along with the interest created by the use of similes and metaphors. I could almost close my eyes and feel myself sitting alongside the man in his canoe, which is precisely what I find most effective about this story. Its lyrical flow and richly painted illustrations perfectly capture the serenity of nature that is found on this lake and in nature everywhere.

            As a teacher and lover of nature, I intend to instill an appreciation for the outdoors in my students. Sometime during the school year, I hope to study nature and incorporate elements of both science and literature when doing so. I believe Canoe Days would be a great story to share, not only in relation to my personal experience with nature, but also as a great piece of literature to enjoy. By using this story almost in the context of poetry, students can learn how to find inspiration in the world around them to explore and write about. However, I think I would need to be careful not to have unreasonably high expectations for my students just because they are studying nature. In other words, what I find beautiful and inspiring may not elicit the same emotions in them. This text could also be used by students to learn about how to enrich writing with fuller descriptions and the use of devices such as simile and metaphor, since it provides such wonderful examples of these and other strategies to make your writing more interesting.