Bag in the Wind

By Ted Kooser with illustrations by Barry Root

For ages 5-8

Recommended by Sari in Manlius, NY:

“I read this book with my daughter 8 years ago, and I still think about it whenever I see a plastic bag floating through the air. This book has the perfect mix of art and prose and story. Most people know Ted Kooser as a poet. I do love his poetry, but I will forever think of this book as his best, most empathetic work.”

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In a singular first children’s book, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser follows a plastic bag on its capricious journey from a landfill into a series of townspeople’s lives.

One cold morning in early spring, a bulldozer pushes a pile of garbage around a landfill and uncovers an empty plastic bag — a perfectly good bag, the color of the skin of a yellow onion, with two holes for handles — that someone has thrown away. Just then, a puff of wind lifts the rolling, flapping bag over a chain-link fence and into the lives of several townsfolk — a can-collecting girl, a homeless man, a store owner — not that all of them notice. Renowned poet Ted Kooser fashions an understated yet compassionate world full of happenstance and connection, neglect and care, all perfectly expressed in Barry Root’s tender illustrations. True to the book’s earth-friendly spirit, it is printed on paper containing 100 percent recycled post-consumer waste and includes an author’s note on recycling plastic bags.

Released in February 2010 by Candlewick | 48 pages