Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) : (To Everything There Is a Season) Review

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(More customer reviews)I first heard about the picture book, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" back in 2003 when I joined a mighty small and unofficial gathering of St. Paul/Minneapolis children's book enthusiasts for a mock Caldecott discussion.We were going to decide which books were most worthy of the Caldecott that year (though the obvious winner, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" swept it).One of those potential winners was a fairly interesting adaptation of what I had only ever known to be a Byrds song.Though credited in large part to Pete Seeger, no stranger to picture books himself, the words are originally from Ecclesiastes.Mr. Seeger gave them to a tune in 1961 and from there the Byrds turned it into a hit.Now it's a book for kids.In my experience, making a kid's book out of a 1960's song is usually a dangerous practice.Take a gander at, "At the Zoo" by Paul Simon if you don't believe me.In this particular case, illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin has given the design of the book an original feel.The result is a book that works far more often than it falls flat.

You know the words, right?So sing along!"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven".The original verses speak of "a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away", so this adaptation does the same.The book begins with an open door leading to a grassy place.Turn the page and you see a large circle, one half on each page with the circle's center falling into the center gutter.On the left page is a verse like, "a time to be born".Here we see all sorts of images that illustrate this concept.On the right hand side are the words, "a time to die".Ditto, death is shown in a variety of different ways.This continues throughout the book with a multitude of different races, religions, people, animals, places, and things bringing home every verse.The pictures continue until you get to a final two-page spread with the words, "A time to love, a time to hate; a time for peace, I swear it's not too late".Here we see kids playing in what we can only assume is the grassy place glimpsed through the door on the first page.Children play and frolic and play chess (???) while a border of kids from all over the world (with different abilities and disabilities) make a half-circle over the page.There's also a nice little shot of Mr. Seeger himself, recognizable banjo in hand.The book comes with a note at the end of, "Suggestions for How to Use This Book", which talks about the song's history, but not (surprisingly) how to actually use the book in a class setting or one-on-one with a child.There's a lovely accompanying cd of the original song with two versions on it.One is Seeger's original and the other is the Byrds song we all know so well.

The cd is a lovely touch and one that I wish more picture books would begin to include.Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well with this kind of song.Usually cds are included with picture books when the book can be read along WITH the cd.In this case, the song is just too darn fast.These illustrations demand that the reader do a bit of lingering over them.People need to stop and examine Ms. Halperin's tiny tiny details.No cd is going to slow down to the point where you are able to do so (and if you continually pause it, it's just gonna mess up your enjoyment of the song).So there's that.

The most interesting thing about this book is really Ms. Halperin's interpretation of such weighty subjects as death, killing, war, and the like.She isn't afraid to go all over the world and pull from as many different human experiences (that are appropriate for children) as possible.At the same time, sometimes she gets a bit goofy.I guess I can't blame her.I mean, it's probably extremely difficult to fill a page with images of death without bumming the kids out right from the start.But why is one of the tiny death pictures of a blue winged fairy yawning?Halperin, for the most part, seems up to the task of making a variety of interesting references.Other times, she goes all goofy on you."A time to cast away stones" shows two men (one looking oddly like Mr. Seeger, banjo tucked under his arm) running away from white hooded ghost-like people throwing stones.I looked at this picture and could not figure out why Muslim women were stoning the folksingers.Then I wondered if this was supposed to be the Klan.If so, where were the pointy hoods?Was this an actual incident that happened to Mr. Seeger once long ago?This isn't the only example of a completely random picture popping up on an otherwise interesting page.Halperin obviously got a little slap-happy after a while and would throw in a bizarre picture in the midst of her otherwise legit ones.It makes for occasionally odd reading.

The only real problem with this book (aside from the already discussed jolts of Dadaism) is that the pictures fall into the center of the book far too often.You can miss out on a lot if you don't spread your book dangerously apart (dangerous to the binding, I mean).I understand that the format of the work demands that these picture fall there, but I wish Halperin could have found a way to avoid it.Ah well.These objections, such as they are, stand small against what is otherwise a lovely and interesting little book.For offspring (or, dare I say, grandchildren) of the children of the 60's, this can make for fun family reading.Little children will adore findings something new on every page and parents will find some of the more difficult images (like a child fingering its parents' gun) a good way to discuss unpleasant subjects.Though it doesn't always work, I still recommend this to anyone who would like to instill in their child a sense of connection with the world around them.Lovely if flawed.

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