A Pocket of Time: The Poetic Childhood of Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) grew up to become a famous poet, but before that, she was a little girl who lived with her Gammie and Pa in Great Village, Nova Scotia. It was there that Bishop learned to walk, to read, to write, to sing hymns, and to catch bumblebees in foxglove flowers. It was there she first went to school and, when she was five, where her mother left and never returned.

Lovingly rendered, this visual and lyrical feast tells the story of Bishop’s childhood days, inspired by Bishop’s own poetry and prose and her time in Great Village, paired with eclectic collage-style artwork from illustrator Emma FitzGerald (EveryBody’s Different on EveryBody Street). A love letter to words, A Pocket of Time is a lesson for young readers in finding the poetry in everything.