Ted Kooser is best known as one of the Midwest's -- indeed, one of the nation's -- best poets. The Nebraskan is a former U.S. Poet Laureate and also has won the Pulitzer Prize for verse.
Bag in the Wind, though, is a prose-and-pictures book for grade-schoolers. Kooser's charming tale focuses on an ordinary plastic grocery bag. First it is thrown away and ends up in a landfill, but a few gusts of wind blow it back out into the world. Thus begins a journey involving several people, all of whom use the bag for various purposes -- carrying crushed aluminum cans, for example.
Barry Root's illustrations help carry Kooser's story along. Words and visuals blend well here; even with the abundant text Kooser has provided, Root has succeeded in making the book look seamless. The paintings are warm and welcoming without being overly sentimental.
In addition, Kooser's message -- that we all can do a better job of reusing resources and easing the strain on the environment -- is delivered gracefully, without overwhelming the quiet but joyful storytelling. Or the characterization: By the book's end, I felt as if I were following the life of a person, not an inanimate object. That's quite a feat for any writer to pull off. Bravo.