Read Up On It

Annotated Titles

The Cremation of Sam Mcgee
Robert W. Service
Paintings: Ted Harrison
Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2006. 30 P.
20th Anniversary Edition
ISBN 155453092X
Ages 9 to 12

He is Sam McGee—a Tennessee man in the Far North-one of many who "moil for gold." He embodies the dilemma that haunts all the transplanted miners: "always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell." The night before Sam dies, he begs his friend "it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains . . . you'll cremate my last remains."

This rendering of Robert Service's classic poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, is sumptuously enhanced by artist Ted Harrison's bold, spirited paintings. Near the end of the tale, Mr. Harrison paints a very happy Sam, clad in red underwear, lounging in a burning furnace and warm at last.

-MS

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