Sing Books with Emily, the Blog

“Over the River and Through the Wood ” is the classic Thanksgiving song.  It is too bad that Thanksgiving has not inspired more!  But we can have lots of fun singing this one.

This poem can be found in a number of illustrated books and poetry compilations for children.

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem by Lydia Maria Child
Illustrated by Matt Tavares
See a YouTube about Matt Tavares’ book, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YjFHBi2-os
Post for this special illustration:
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/a-new-ride-over-the-river/

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem By Lydia Maria Child
Illustrated by Christopher Manson

I love the woodcut illustrations in Christopher Manson’s outing, published in 1993.  This volume also includes an informative “Note About the Text.”  The colors are rich and give fanciful representation to an idealized 19th century  village Thanksgiving.   In one two-page spread, children ice skate on a frozen stream.  In another, the dapple-gray horse pulls the red sleigh through a covered bridge.  This version, however does not include the entire poem.

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem By Lydia Maria Child
Illustrated by Brinton Turkle

A book illustrated by Brinton Turkle  (1974) has a fuller representation of the poem, with stanzas that I have not found anyplace else.  These pencil sketches and watercolors are realistic and pretty.  Although this book is out of print, you can find it at used book sellers online.

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem By Lydia Maria Child
Illustrated by David Catrow

I spied an illustration by David Catrow, who is a master of illustrating humorous song parodies.  It looks like a family trying to make it through holiday traffic, in a car that is packed to the rivets.

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Childcraft, Volume 1, The Poems of Early Childhood (1954)
Published by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation
Edited by J. Morris Jones
Words and Music by Various Artists
Illustrated by Various Artists
(This amazingly wonderful poetry compilation, Volume 1 of 15 Volumes of the Childcraft set, is filled with poetry that can be sung.  The illustrations now appear wonderfully vintage, by numerous artists.  If you can find a copy of this book, you will not be disappointed in its contents)
“Thanksgiving Day” (AKA “Over the River and Through the Wood“), written by Lydia Maria Child and sung to a traditional tune is printed and illustrated on p. 142

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An Extra Special Outing…

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem by Lydia Maria Child
Illustrated by Matt Tavares

Matt Tavares has created a fantastic version of the song “Over the River and Through the Wood.”  The pictures of the snowy 19th century New England town and landscape are beautiful, setting the blues and grays of snow and horse with the vivid reds of the sleigh and brick houses.  He’s livened these lyric illustrations also with a story of a dog sometimes teasing and sometimes chasing after the sleigh holding in his teeth a boy’s hat that had flown off in the wind.

When I first saw the book, I didn’t buy it, put off by the book’s subtitle, “The New England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day.”  I wondered why the illustrator would make it a song for a boy, girls can enjoy it, too!  But, turns out, this is Lydia Maria Child’s own subtitle for her poem.  I hope girls won’t thing this book can’t be for them, too…it certainly can be!  It’s a song and book everyone can enjoy.

Besides the great pictures, this book gets special accolades from me for illustrating the entire poem (not just a few select verses).  The whole poem is here and it can all be sung to the familiar tune we all know…though, with some verses, you’ve got to learn the rhythms to fit the words.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YjFHBi2-os

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When singing this song, some of the verses can be tricky, because you have to alter the rhythm a little to fit in the words.  After a little practice, you’ll get it.

This song was originally written as a poem by Lydia Maria Child in the 1840′s and seems to have been set to this jolly traditional tune later in the 19th century.

Lydia Maria Child

Read an informative biography of Lydia Maria Child here: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/childlydiamaria/a/lydiamariachild.htm

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Below are the poem’s original 12 verses.  Most illustrated versions of the poem, pick and choose from these, but do not include the entire original.  I found the complete poem online at: http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blchildthanksgiving.htm:

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOOD
Poem by Lydia Maria Child

Over the river, and through the wood,
To Grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way,
To carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood,
To Grandfather’s house away!
We would not stop
For doll or top, For it is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river, and through the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.

Over the river, and through the wood,
With a clear blue winter sky,
The dogs do bark,
And children hark,
As we go jingling by.

Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play -
Hear the bells ring,
“Ting a ling ding!”
Hurray for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood,
No matter for winds that blow
Or if we get
The sleigh upset
Into a bank of snow.

Over the river, and through the wood,
To see little John and Ann;
We will kiss them all,
And play snowball,
And stay as long as we can.

Over the river, and through the wood,
Trot fast my dapple grey!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound,
For ’tis Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barnyard gate;
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait!

Over the river, and through the wood -
Old Jowler hears our bells;
He shakes his pow,
With a loud bow-wow,
And thus the news he tells.

Over the river, and through the wood,
When Grandmother sees us come,
She will say, “O, dear,
The children are here,
Bring pie for everyone.”

Over the river, and through the wood,
Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

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For singing along with an instrumental track (although this is another traditional tune which is nicely sung a capella), I suggest track 9 on Smoky Mountain Band’s “Christmas in the Smoky Mountains,”  which you can find on i-tunes. The track is played exactly to sing the full 12 verses of the poem.

Preview the song, here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QM8HCU/ref=dm_dp_trk9?ie=UTF8&qid=1288293849&sr=8-1

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A page for the Sing Books with Emily SINGABLE ADVENT CALENDAR

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOOD:
I have found this oldie but goodie on a few Christmas albums, so I thought we could enjoy singing it once again (after Thanksgiving) for Advent Holiday enjoyment!

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Over the River and Through the Wood
Traditional Tune
Poem by Lydia Maria Child
To view or print the SBWE Singable Advent Calendar sheet for “Over the River and Through the Wood,” click here:
SBWE Advent Calendar Over the River (Christmas)

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Related Posts

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OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOOD, A SINGABLE PICTURE BOOK
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/over-the-river-and-through-the-wood-a-singable-book-lyrics-history-and-sing-along-tracks/

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POETRY SINGABLE POETRY IN COMPILATIONS
An list of  singable poems from compilations of poetry for children
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/singable-poetry-a-list-of-poems-that-can-be-sung-from-illustrated-compilations-of-poetry-and-singable-picture-books/

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POETRY, SINGABLE POETRY IN INDIVIDUALLY ILLUSTRATED SINGABLE PICTURE BOOKS
A list of individually illustrated poems that have been set to music and can be sung
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/poems-individually-illustrated-spb/

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EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
A list of SPBs with fun and sneakily educational content.  The kids won’t even know they’re learning!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/singable-picture-books-with-sneaky-educational-content/

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WINTER
Singable Picture Books for Winter
Some of these are sung at Christmastime, but this is a list of songs about Winter that you can sing all season long!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/singable-picture-books-for-winter/

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SING BOOKS WITH EMILY SINGABLE ADVENT CALENDAR
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/the-sing-books-with-emily-singable-advent-calendar/

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CHRISTMAS
A Collection of Singable Picture Books that celebrate CHRISTMAS!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/singable-picture-books-for-christmas/

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THANKSGIVING
A Song List to Help Us Celebrate Thanksgiving!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/thank-heavens-singable-picture-books-for-thanksgiving/