by Sylvia Wolf ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994
In her amazing first book for young readers, Wolf tells the stories of five women photographers from Victorian times through the present. Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), an English woman born in India, began photographing at the age of 48. Unlike her contemporaries, Cameron tried to make her portraits less forced and unnatural and was often criticized for her fuzzy images and allegedly poor technique, but she is recognized today as a true innovator in the art of portraiture. In contrast to Cameron's studiously unstudied works are those of Sandy Skoglund (b. 1946). Her striking photo, ``Radioactive Cats'' (1980), shown on the cover, is not retouched: She painted the room, sculpted the cats, and designed the display for six months before she took the picture. Flor Gardu§o (b. 1957) and Lorna Simpson (b. 1960) use very different techniques to capture the culture and history of Latin-American Indians and African-Americans, respectively. Gardu§o the Indians engaged in their daily affairs, while Simpson uses stark images and multimedia displays to combat racial stereotyping and to remember the past. Margaret Bourke-White's (1904-1971) spectacular career provides the most historically significant images in the book. Bourke-White was an intrepid photographer who gave the world such enduring photos as the ``Dam at Fort Peck, Montana'' (1936), the first cover of Life magazine; ``Buchenwald, Germany, the Day after Liberation, April 1945''; and the politically charged picture of Ghandi posed with his spinning wheel. Wolf presents the artists in simple, elegant prose, and her analyses of their works are thoughtful and convincing. The photographs are beautifully reproduced and precisely credited, each one a masterpiece. (Nonfiction. 9+)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8075-2531-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
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by Kirkpatrick Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2000
In 1948 the unorthodox Miss Agnes arrives to teach the children of an Athabascan Indian Village in remote Alaska. Ten-year-old Fred (Fredrika) matter-of-factly narrates this story of how a teacher transformed the school. Miss Agnes’s one-room schoolhouse is a progressive classroom, where the old textbooks are stored away first thing upon her arrival. The children learn to read using handmade books that are about their own village and lives: winter trapping camps, tanning moose hides, fishing, and curing the catch, etc. Math is a lesson on how not to get cheated when selling animal pelts. These young geographers learn about the world on a huge map that covers one whole schoolhouse wall. Fred is pitch-perfect in her observations of the village residents. “Little Pete made a picture of his dad’s trapline cabin . . . He was proud of that picture, I could tell, because he kept making fun of it.” Hill (Winter Camp, 1993, etc.) creates a community of realistically unique adults and children that is rich in the detail of their daily lives. Big Pete is as small and scrappy, as his son Little Pete is huge, gentle, and kind. Fred’s 12-year-old deaf sister, Bokko, has her father’s smile and has never gone to school until Miss Agnes. Charlie-Boy is so physically adept at age 6 that he is the best runner, thrower, and catcher of all the children. These are just a few of the residents in this rural community. The school year is not without tension. Will Bokko continue in school? Will Mama stay angry with Miss Agnes? And most important, who will be their teacher after Miss Agnes leaves? A quiet, yet satisfying account. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82933-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Brian Selznick ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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