Yes, E.B. White has a new book out.  Really.  It’s a delightful picture book, based on a poem he wrote in 1928 while working at The New Yorker magazine.

The Duck Can’t Sleep, by E.B. White

The best part is the book is illustrated by Melissa Sweet.  She wrote and illustrated Some Writer, the Story of E.B. White.  It’s a fabulous book, and where I learned most everything about White.

Of course White was always called Andy.  His grandniece who lives nearby always called him Uncle Andy.  He married Katherine who was older than he.  She worked at The New Yorker, too.  When he wrote Charlotte’s Web, his wife, Katherine, was Charlotte and Andy was Wilbur.

I’ll never forget that.

The book’s poem is
NATURA IN URBE

While midnight clung to every shore
I walked me round the reservoir,
With little cause and little sense
I ambled round and round the fence,
And once, while standing quietly,
I saw a little duck swim by.

I plainly saw his head a-wobble,
I plainly saw his tail a-bobble,
As all across the captive lake
He spread his negligible wake.
And I can scarce begin to tell
How mystical this caravel,
Or how surprised I was to see
A duck as wide awake as me.

Afloat at night upon the deep
You’d think a duck would go to sleep,
You’d think a normal duck would hanker
To close his eyes and ride at at anchor;
You’d think a duck would set his breast
Against the wave, and come to rest;
You’d think that twelve o’clock were late
For any duck to navigate
All round and round the reservoir.
I wondered what he did it for.

I wondered if he’d left his kind
Because of something on his mind,
A midnight sail to clear his vision
And help him reach some duck decision.
Surely he would not swim and swim
Were something hard not troubling him.
It was preposterous to think
A duck would rouse to get a drink;
Nor was it anything but silly
To think he paddled willy nilly;
And though ’twas funny to suppose
A little duck had secret woes,
And though it put me on my mettle
To guess what problems ducks must settle,
I liked to think he swam the deep
Because he simply could not sleep.

The illustrations are delightful.

Martha White, E.B. White’s granddaughter, has a lengthy and lovely forward to the book.  I highly recommend reading this; your public library will have a copy.

Poetry is important, and something children need to hear.  White’s poem in a picture book is just perfect.

Jennie