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The Swing
"How do you like to go up in a swing?"
Delightful images by Julie Morstad bring to life Robert Louis Stevenson's classic poem The Swing. Share this gorgeous board book with your baby or toddler and revel in the magical images and words.
Delightful images by Julie Morstad bring to life Robert Louis Stevenson's classic poem The Swing. Share this gorgeous board book with your baby or toddler and revel in the magical images and words.
16 pages, Board Book
First published January 1, 1885
2 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson
6,491 books6,823 followersRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 13, 2012
There comes a moment in a new parent’s life when they realize that they have become their own parents. It’s different for everyone. For some folks it won’t happen until they’re berating their teenagers, conjuring up terms and threats from their own youth that they swore they’d never use. For others, it happens at practically the moment after conception. And for me, it happened when I read my one-year-old daughter Julie Morstad’s simply irresistible adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic poem The Swing. As I read the book aloud I realized that I had heard this poem myself as a child. I could even recall the images that accompanied it, filled with sickly sweet children with cheeks so large they’d make the Campbell Soup kids seem wan in comparison. And when later I heard my own mother recite this poem I was amazed to discover that my reading, which I’d done several time for my own daughter, contained the exact same cadences and turns of phrase as my mother’s rendition. The difference for my daughter will be the fact that while the art accompanying my The Swing was tepid, the images that appear in Julie Morstad's gorgeous little board book are utterly lovely creations. For all those parents desperate to introduce their toddlers to poetry, or just folks who want to read their kids something beautiful for once, here is the answer to your prayers.
“How do you like to go up in a swing / Up in the air so blue?” I should think you’d like it very much if you were one of the children in Julie Morstad’s clever little book. Adapting Robert Louis Stevenson’s words, Ms. Morstad fills her pages with kids on their way up, their way down, and everywhere in-between. They glide under cherry blossoms, observe the even rows of plants and vegetables, and swing like superheroes on their bellies. The result is a haunting but thoroughly enjoyable update to a poem that feels as fresh and fun as it was the day it was first published in the late 1800s.
Etsy has been a simultaneous boon and problem for the children’s picture book world. On the one hand, there is no better place for editors to find up and coming artists. Never before has a public forum of this scope yielded such rich artistic talent. On the other hand, there is a kind of Etsy “look” that typifies the people found there. It’s what allows reviewers like myself to view certain kinds of children’s books and sniff “Etsy” when we want to put them down. Now at a first glance Morstad’s work on The Swing might strike you as falling in the Etsy vein. An unfair assumption since as far as I can tell Ms. Morstad sells her art herself and not through Etsy. More to the point, this book is better than that. Granted I wouldn’t mind taking some of the images found in the book and framing them on my wall (particularly that cover image with the black background and white haired girl swinging through a field of vibrant blossoms). But there’s a quality to Ms. Morstad’s art that feels more than merely trendy. There’s a lot of beauty here, and it ties in directly to the subject matter.
Books about swinging for children are the one-act plays of children’s literature. Tied entirely to a single place where the vertical is exchanged for the horizontal, it’s hard to make a narrative around swinging. Indeed that’s probably why books like Higher Higher by Leslie Patricelli have been for the very young set while Tricia Tusa’s Follow Me has looked at other aspects of swinging entirely (colors, etc.). The best attempt at the genre was probably Joe Cepeda’s The Swing which had a kind of Calvin & Hobbes type of plot. Morstad’s adaptation of Stevenson’s poem is smart because rather than show a single kid just going up and down and down and up she shows a wide range of children swinging in all kinds of different settings.
Looking at the book itself I was impressed by the design of the thing. It fools you for the first few pages, allowing you to think that you’re reading yet another book where the text is on one page and the images on the other. Yet when you reach the lines “Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing / Ever a child can do!” the words curve and dive around two tow-headed children, swinging against a verdant green background. Each image carries with it a distinctive mood and feel. There’s one scene of a child swinging over “River and trees and cattle and all” while a midday sun sinks red towards the horizon. Of course I’ve already mentioned my favorite image in the book, which is the one on the cover. Happily Ms. Morstad comes full circle with that girl. She appears at first on the cover, and then once again at the end of the book with the final lines “Up in the air and down!” There you see her white hair, little pink shoes, and jet black background in place. This time, however, her swinging has definitely slowed down and she regards the reader with a small smile and a sense of complacency you can’t help but envy. Plus the fluorescent flowers are cool. Like those.
I am pleased to report that while I dislike it when folks use their own children as control groups, determining whether or not a book works, in this particular case I feel no guilt in reporting that my one-year-old is a fan. I’m not sure if it’s the engrossing images, the way the sentences are split up on the pages, or the way the poem sounds on my tongue, but whatever the case Morstad’s The Swing is definitely doing something right. Evocative and mesmerizing all at once, this is one book that is sure to engage kids right from the get-go. With its new packaging, Stevenson’s classic feels as fresh and new as anything you’ll find on your bookstore and library shelves today. Beautiful. There’s no other word for it.
For ages 1-5.
“How do you like to go up in a swing / Up in the air so blue?” I should think you’d like it very much if you were one of the children in Julie Morstad’s clever little book. Adapting Robert Louis Stevenson’s words, Ms. Morstad fills her pages with kids on their way up, their way down, and everywhere in-between. They glide under cherry blossoms, observe the even rows of plants and vegetables, and swing like superheroes on their bellies. The result is a haunting but thoroughly enjoyable update to a poem that feels as fresh and fun as it was the day it was first published in the late 1800s.
Etsy has been a simultaneous boon and problem for the children’s picture book world. On the one hand, there is no better place for editors to find up and coming artists. Never before has a public forum of this scope yielded such rich artistic talent. On the other hand, there is a kind of Etsy “look” that typifies the people found there. It’s what allows reviewers like myself to view certain kinds of children’s books and sniff “Etsy” when we want to put them down. Now at a first glance Morstad’s work on The Swing might strike you as falling in the Etsy vein. An unfair assumption since as far as I can tell Ms. Morstad sells her art herself and not through Etsy. More to the point, this book is better than that. Granted I wouldn’t mind taking some of the images found in the book and framing them on my wall (particularly that cover image with the black background and white haired girl swinging through a field of vibrant blossoms). But there’s a quality to Ms. Morstad’s art that feels more than merely trendy. There’s a lot of beauty here, and it ties in directly to the subject matter.
Books about swinging for children are the one-act plays of children’s literature. Tied entirely to a single place where the vertical is exchanged for the horizontal, it’s hard to make a narrative around swinging. Indeed that’s probably why books like Higher Higher by Leslie Patricelli have been for the very young set while Tricia Tusa’s Follow Me has looked at other aspects of swinging entirely (colors, etc.). The best attempt at the genre was probably Joe Cepeda’s The Swing which had a kind of Calvin & Hobbes type of plot. Morstad’s adaptation of Stevenson’s poem is smart because rather than show a single kid just going up and down and down and up she shows a wide range of children swinging in all kinds of different settings.
Looking at the book itself I was impressed by the design of the thing. It fools you for the first few pages, allowing you to think that you’re reading yet another book where the text is on one page and the images on the other. Yet when you reach the lines “Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing / Ever a child can do!” the words curve and dive around two tow-headed children, swinging against a verdant green background. Each image carries with it a distinctive mood and feel. There’s one scene of a child swinging over “River and trees and cattle and all” while a midday sun sinks red towards the horizon. Of course I’ve already mentioned my favorite image in the book, which is the one on the cover. Happily Ms. Morstad comes full circle with that girl. She appears at first on the cover, and then once again at the end of the book with the final lines “Up in the air and down!” There you see her white hair, little pink shoes, and jet black background in place. This time, however, her swinging has definitely slowed down and she regards the reader with a small smile and a sense of complacency you can’t help but envy. Plus the fluorescent flowers are cool. Like those.
I am pleased to report that while I dislike it when folks use their own children as control groups, determining whether or not a book works, in this particular case I feel no guilt in reporting that my one-year-old is a fan. I’m not sure if it’s the engrossing images, the way the sentences are split up on the pages, or the way the poem sounds on my tongue, but whatever the case Morstad’s The Swing is definitely doing something right. Evocative and mesmerizing all at once, this is one book that is sure to engage kids right from the get-go. With its new packaging, Stevenson’s classic feels as fresh and new as anything you’ll find on your bookstore and library shelves today. Beautiful. There’s no other word for it.
For ages 1-5.
November 27, 2020
Reminded me of Fujikawa.
February 20, 2021
The Swing, illustrated by Julie Morstad.
Canadian picture-book artist and author Julie Morstad illustrates the classic poem from Robert Louis Stevenson, originally contained in his collection A Child's Garden of Verses , in this lovely board book. Each two-page spread features a sentence from the three-stanza poem, which explores and celebrates the experiences of a child as they swing high into the air...
I initially sought out the The Swing because I am an admirer of Julie Morstad's artwork, and I was certainly rewarded, from a visual perspective. The artwork here is beautiful, with a gorgeous color palette, and a diverse range of children depicted swinging away for all they are worth. There is a wonderful sense of motion in Morstad's artwork here, that is excellently suited to the text, which is (as one would expect) immensely readable. Recommended to anyone seeking beautiful board books with a poetic text. For my part, I need to track down A Child's Garden of Verses and read the entire thing - something I have been meaning to do for years.
Canadian picture-book artist and author Julie Morstad illustrates the classic poem from Robert Louis Stevenson, originally contained in his collection A Child's Garden of Verses , in this lovely board book. Each two-page spread features a sentence from the three-stanza poem, which explores and celebrates the experiences of a child as they swing high into the air...
I initially sought out the The Swing because I am an admirer of Julie Morstad's artwork, and I was certainly rewarded, from a visual perspective. The artwork here is beautiful, with a gorgeous color palette, and a diverse range of children depicted swinging away for all they are worth. There is a wonderful sense of motion in Morstad's artwork here, that is excellently suited to the text, which is (as one would expect) immensely readable. Recommended to anyone seeking beautiful board books with a poetic text. For my part, I need to track down A Child's Garden of Verses and read the entire thing - something I have been meaning to do for years.
August 7, 2018
Julie Morstad's illustrations never disappoint!
April 13, 2015
One word immediately comes to mind when I think about The Swing and that word is joy! This is an utter gem of a board book, featuring glorious illustrations by Morstad to accompany the charming poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. There is something about this poem that takes me back to my childhood- perhaps I had it read to me when I was young, or it could be that it just exudes a feeling of happy nostalgia. That nostalgic feeling may also exist because this poem- perhaps due to certain key words or imagery- makes me think back to a beloved passage I read over (and over) again as a child: that of Winnie-the-Pooh, holding onto a balloon, sweetly singing 'every little cloud, always sings aloud'.
The lilting, uninhibited verse of Stevenson's poem is, I think, perfectly expressed by Morstad's buoyant yet serene illustrations. You can take a peak at some more of the delightful illustrations here on Morstad's site. Overall, I just love this board book and would highly recommend it to little ones and adults alike.
*Hardcopy was provided courtesy of Simply Read Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and comments are my own*
Want to read
August 13, 2012I don't care if Clara thinks she's "too old for board books." She's getting this one.
July 3, 2021
Definitely captures the delight of a child on a swing.
August 5, 2016
I had no idea how many works of art there are out there disguising themselves as baby books before I had a kid myself. This one is truly exquisite featuring lovely images of children swinging back and forth to the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is a really fun poem to read aloud and maybe my son picks up on that because he seems to enjoy it too and requests it at least once a day. Highly recommended for kids and adults.
November 30, 2013
This lovely little board book with illustrations by Julie Morstad is sure to please the swing lovers in the family. Morstad's soft illustrations have just enough detail to draw readers in for quiet conversations about what is going on. Stevenson's classic poem will be beloved once again by generations to come.
August 1, 2013
An expressively illustrated board book version of Robert Louis Stevenson's exquisite poem about the delights of swinging high. To read it is to experience the exhilaration of the real thing. Reviewed for www.GoodReadingGuide.com
January 1, 2015
Such a sweet little board book. Nice poem with beautiful and playful illustrations. The brushwork and precious, earthen style really shine. It's a book I'd love to have on my shelf despite being 27! Definitely fills me with nostalgia for my playground swinging days.
May 4, 2017
A sweet little board book with a poem I hope all children can relate to. Julie Morstad's darling pictures makes the book all the more charming. #kidsbooksworthreading #kidsbook #kidsbooks #boardbook #kidlit #babylit #kidsbookstagram #childrensliterature #theswing #robertlewisstevenson #juliemorstad
March 9, 2018
The illustrations are ahhh!! So phenomenal! I love them so much! This is a very quick toddler book with such wonderful illustrations. The "story" is basically a short poem with illustrations. I love it.
June 9, 2013
Classic poem, newly illustrated and beautiful. Love the last page.
March 17, 2013
I ordered this from the library for my poetry unit, but it didn't arrive in time. No loss. This is intended for the very, very young.
March 21, 2013
Cute story about swinging and the world around us.
April 22, 2013
This is such a sweet board book; beautiful illustrations and based on a fun, classic poem. It's surprising how hard it is to find quality literature for kids!
December 18, 2013
Absolutely gorgeous illustrations!
October 3, 2013
4* art
4* poem
4* poem
September 6, 2016
As a child, this was my favorite poem.
April 7, 2014
One of the best poems on childhood I have read !!!!
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
February 22, 2015
Just a little board book with poem text by Robert Louis Stevenson, but it's lovely.
May 11, 2017
Lovely illustrations to complement a favourite childhood poem... I'd love to hang prints of these pictures in a child's room someday.
October 16, 2017
Supposedly a classic poem. I had never heard it before. But it was okay/good.
July 11, 2018
Soooo lovely!
October 5, 2019
Genre: Poetry- Single Poem book
Awards: N/A
Audience: Pre K-K
A. "The Swing" is a lyrical poem written about swinging and why it is such a great thing for kids to do.
B. The use of rhyme in this poem is extremely simple (ABAB), but that is perfect for the intended audience. This would be a great poem to use for a child's first introduction of rhyming in poetry.
C. Write a short rhyming poem about your favorite thing to do outside.
When I go outside I like to draw things in chalk.
It is so fun to let my imagination grow.
All of the sudden, my art work covers the whole side walk.
When my mom comes outside to look, she says woah!
Awards: N/A
Audience: Pre K-K
A. "The Swing" is a lyrical poem written about swinging and why it is such a great thing for kids to do.
B. The use of rhyme in this poem is extremely simple (ABAB), but that is perfect for the intended audience. This would be a great poem to use for a child's first introduction of rhyming in poetry.
C. Write a short rhyming poem about your favorite thing to do outside.
When I go outside I like to draw things in chalk.
It is so fun to let my imagination grow.
All of the sudden, my art work covers the whole side walk.
When my mom comes outside to look, she says woah!
August 2, 2019
We love to swing and this book captures the joyful feeling of flying up and over the world as you swing back and forth. Beautiful illustrations of lots of different kids, both boys and girls. HR likes to identify each of the swinging children as one of her friends or siblings which makes reading the story even more fun for her.
January 6, 2020
This simple poem with its winsome illustrations is based on a favorite childhood verse by Robert Louis Stevenson that my mother often recited to us.
April 23, 2021
Gorgeous illustrations!
October 13, 2021
Kindergarten - fun poem
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews