Jeremiah does not fit the down-and-out image of an illiterate old man. He’s led a particularly successful life on the farm, where he builds split-rail fences, cooks buttermilk pancakes, and grows delicious vegetables. Although he can read the signs of the seasons and the code of the natural landscape, letters and words have somehow never been accessible to him. Supported by his family in his desire to learn to “be even better,” Jeremiah heads off to the rural schoolhouse. As he learns the alphabet and phonics with the help of the children who are his classmates, Jeremiah also teaches the curriculum he has already mastered so well – bird sounds, applesauce making, and the whittling of wood. One day he takes a book of poetry home from school. That night his wife is so moved by his readings on nature that she, too, decides to learn to read, and he offers to be her teacher.

With his snowy beard and sensitive temperament, Jeremiah is a character of great personal dignity. Jo Ellen Bogart’s story is tender and lyric; key phrases are repeated just often enough to give rhythmic flow to the narrative. The illustrations for the book, from oil paintings on canvas, are created by Laura Fernandez and Rick Jacobson, who also collaborated on Tchaikovsky Discovers America. Rich and mellow, these pictures enhance the heartwarming quality of the text. The sociological question of why such a capable couple have never learned to read remains unexplored. This is neither a flaw nor an oversight, but a tribute to the power of Bogart’s writing and the accompanying illustrations. Literacy is viewed, not as a commodity essential to productivity in the contemporary workplace, but as a kind of magical door that allows those who enter an opportunity to experience beauty and truth more fully. Reading this book is a testament to that perspective.