Truly an eye-opening invitation.
Paired to a personal selection of favorite photos from a broad variety of artists, Meyerowitz distils a lifetime’s thought about getting, and appreciating, the shot.
Sandwiched between large eye-shaped windows cut into the front and rear covers, the veteran photographer’s observations are addressed as much to serious picture takers as to picture viewers. Along with noting, for instance, that a Cartier-Bresson image of a man in midair, unsuccessfully trying to leap a puddle, exemplifies the essential principle that “Timing Is Everything,” he points to a funny detail—a circus poster in the background with an acrobat in a similar posture—that could easily go unnoticed. Similarly, among comments about capturing light and color, using reflections and sequences, experimenting with angles and points of view, he offers broadening insights (“Although the photograph is of laundry, it isn’t about laundry”) as well as reasons to take second and even third looks at how seemingly disparate elements fit together. The diversity of both subjects and photographers is impressive; even when he chooses works by well-known artists such as Walker Evans or Gordon Parks, they are likely to be familiar only to longtime students of the medium. Overdesigned text pages (and an uncompelling choice to illustrate “trompe l’oeil”) won’t dim the pleasure of lingering over these big, crisply reproduced pictures…all of which are reminders “that the most banal objects, the most commonplace afternoons, contain unexpected mystery and wonder.”
Truly an eye-opening invitation. (Picture book. 11-15)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59711-315-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Aperture
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Year-round fun.
Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”
This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”
Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good story with some unexpected twists
After saving the life of a famous model, a 14-year-old Mexican-American boy learns the pressures of popularity and the definition of true heroism.
Dallas freshman Rawly Sánchez knows that life is not perfect. His older brother Jaime is in prison, while his mother’s Mexican restaurant is barely staying afloat. Now, he can’t even visit his brother on Saturdays anymore, or he will miss the required tutoring for the algebra class he is failing. Small bursts of happiness come in the comic books he loves and in hanging out with his nerdy, often-annoying, wisecracking Jewish best friend Nevin Steinberg. Things take a turn for the worse when someone accidentally sets a pig loose in his mom’s restaurant, and the incident makes the local news. Then, Nevin talks Rawly into performing as a duo at the school talent show, where he makes a fool of himself in front of his crush, Miyoko. Everything changes when Rawly misses his bus stop and ends up rescuing 22-year-old model Nikki Demetrius when her car plunges into a river. Instantly, Rawly is on the local and national news, hailed as a hero for saving Nikki’s life. The third-person narration follows Rawley’s journey as he learns who his real friends are and the difference between comic-book and real-world heroes.
A good story with some unexpected twists . (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55885-711-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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