UPTOWN- A book review for Children's Lit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collier, Bryan. 2000. UPTOWN. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0805057218

PLOT SUMMARY

A young boy takes the reader on a tour of his hometown, Harlem.  He shows them the train, the food, the buildings, the shopping, the art, and more- all from his child’s point of view as he goes about his regular activities.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Collier creates a beautiful and vibrant picture book in UPTOWN.  His young, earnest narrator describes Harlem through a child’s perspective.  Collier uses similes and metaphors to illustrate how a child would see the city- “Uptown is a caterpillar.  Well, it’s really the Metro-North train…”  Not only do his literary elements create a moving interpretation of Harlem, but the shapes, fonts, colors, and sizes of the words add to the meaning.  The “orange sunset over the Hudson River” is yellow and orange.  The music notes that “float through the air” literally float across the page. 

After all the imagery and art in the language, it is hard to imagine that the illustrations have any work left to do, but they are magnificent.  I fell in love with this story before I even left the first page.  The illustrations contain bold, bright color, strong lines, interesting angles (looking down through a window onto the narrator’s head), and unique style (imagine buildings that somehow look to be made of chocolate, but completely real at the same time).  They seem to illustrate the reality of the city with the imaginative quality of childhood.  And all the while, our young narrator is there, naïve and sweet, and so well created that he almost seems like a real kid.

 

This story brings Harlem to life.  It is culturally authentic and shows the feeling of community and pride this young boy feels about where he comes from.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

*Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award

*Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrators

*Publisher’s Weekly- “… both text and art capture a child’s sense of perspective and imagination”

*School Library Journal- “From [the narrator’s] perspective, it’s the very best place to be, and readers will find it difficult to disagree.”

CONNECTIONS

*This could be a great way to get the students thinking about where they come from and use this as a jumping off point to write a story or a poem about their hometown.

* Other Award-winning books by Collier:  TROMBONE SHORTY, MARTIN’S BIG WORDS: THE LIFE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., and ROSA.

Pictures taken from: http://kinderbooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2004/01/Uptown1.jpg