On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson

This book is a delight for readers of all ages interested in the arts.

As an Emily Dickinson fanatic of several years, I found that this short children's book spoke into the heart of Dickinson's work far more poignantly than many pieces of media aimed at adults. Far from portraying her as a sad recluse, this book focuses on how her high sensitivity was both her greatest challenge and her greatest strength. (It is the sort of book I wish I had when I was a highly sensitive child!) As the book shows, the characteristics that made other people misunderstand Emily were also the things that made her so special and wonderful. The book provides an excellent introduction to poetry through the way it weaves in snippets of Dickinson's work and provides further information about poetry at the end. It also is gorgeously illustrated, bringing to life all sorts of strange, beautiful, whimsical imagery from Dickinson's writing (like Dickinson soaring through the sky on a grasshopper). "On Wings of Words" is not just a great book for exploring the arts but also could be a great tool for helping highly sensitive, quirky children feel understood.