GORDON PARKS

Based on an interview with Parks, now in his 90s, and built on his mother’s childhood challenge, “What a white boy can do, you can too—and no excuses,” Parr’s profile briefly traces the photographer/writer/filmmaker’s career from early struggles in Minnesota to his memoir for adults, Hungry Heart (2005). Parks certainly merits attention from younger readers, and an update for Midge Turk’s 1971 biography is definitely overdue. But not only is the caption-like text here too limited to present a rounded picture of Parks’s achievements, but a skimpy selection of his often murky black-and-white photos is padded out with several obtrusive, not always relevant pencil drawings by Kathryn Breidenthal. A substandard, message-driven production, of limited value to libraries. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)