bookshelf

PHOTOS FRAMED

Name: PHOTOS FRAMED
Author: Ruth Thomson
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7154-9

A FRESH LOOK AT THE WORLD'S MOST MEMORABLE PHOTOGRAPHS

by Ruth Thomson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2014

A fine resource and excellent for even a casual perusal.

bookshelf

Modern history has been defined by photographs; the most famous images are familiar to many, and each is surely worth more than a thousand words.

Thomson has drawn together a collection of 27 photographic images that span the years from 1844—a self-portrait of photography inventor Louis Daguerre—to three images from 2011, including the formal portrait of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding party. A few other evocative photographs include Migrant Mother, by Dorothea Lange; Afghan Girl, of a solemn, green-eyed Afghani teen in a red head scarf; Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol’s often reproduced multiple image of Marilyn Monroe; and Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper, the famous photo by Charles C. Ebbets of Depression-era construction workers fearlessly eating their lunches on a metal beam high above New York City. Missing from the collection is the tragically iconic photo called Napalm Girl; in its place is the less well-known but nonetheless moving Life Magazine image of a 3-year-old victim of the 1940 London Blitz. Each photo is accompanied by a page of text that provides the history of the image, its significance, a brief biography of the photographer and a few “Photo Thoughts”—questions to consider. The images are all intriguing and do much to capture the scope and cultural importance of photography as an art form as well as a documentary medium.

A fine resource and excellent for even a casual perusal. (Nonfiction. 10-18)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-7636-7154-9

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

TASTING THE SKY

A PALESTINIAN CHILDHOOD

by Ibtisam Barakat ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2007

bookshelf

It’s the first night of the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Arab countries. Three-year-old Ibtisam, hunting frantically for a shoe, loses her family as they join the throng of anxious Palestinians fleeing Ramallah into Jordan. Desperate hours will elapse before the family is reunited. This beautifully written memoir of the author’s childhood on the Israeli-occupied West Bank unfolds against a harsh backdrop of war and cultural displacement. The family endures poverty, separations and frequent relocation. Yet life goes on, by turns surprising, funny, heartbreaking and rich with possibility. In an overcrowded Jordanian school-room housing refugees, Ibtisam discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arab alphabet, and a key unlocking the magical world of written words. Courageous and curious, but by no means always well-behaved, Ibtisam and her brothers find ways to assert their strong wills in defiance of the authorities that govern their lives. The injustices that rankle come at the hands of parents and teachers, not broader geopolitical realities. A compassionate, insightful family and cultural portrait. (map, historical note, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10+)

Pub Date: May 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-374-35733-1

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

SKYWALKERS

MOHAWKS ON THE HIGH STEEL

by David Weitzman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2010

bookshelf

Weaving together architectural, engineering and Native American history, Weitzman tells the fascinating story of how Mohawk Indian ironworkers helped construct the sprawling bridges and towering skyscrapers that dominate our urban landscape. The book begins with a brief but informative history of the Kanien'kéhaka—People of the Flint. Leaders in establishing the League of the Iroquois, a confederation of Indian nations in the New York region, Mohawks had a longstanding reputation for their sense of tight-knit community, attraction to danger and love for physical challenge, qualities that served them well when hired in the late 1800s to do the most arduous work in railroad and bridge construction. With the advent of the skyscraper, Mohawks possessing agility that seemed gravity-defying worked hundreds of feet above the ground. They were not immune to tragedy, and the author discusses in detail the collapse of the Québec Bridge that killed 31 Mohawk workers. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that capture the daring spirit of these heroic workers, the concise, captivating account offers great insight into the little-known but considerable role Native Americans played in our architectural and engineering achievements. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)