Amazing Grace: Smith Island and the Chesapeake Watermen - Hardcover

Wolf, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 002793330X ISBN 13: 9780027933307

Publisher: Atheneum, 1986

Synopsis

Text and photographs portray life on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay, with an emphasis on the traditional activity of crabbing as it is practiced there.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4 Up This photo-essay sketches life on tiny Smith Island, a flat, low-lying stretch of land in Chesapeake Bay that is home for about 550 people. The way of life for the islanderstheir work, their daily existence, and their spiritual commitmentis portrayed through black-and-white photographs and a short, choppy, somewhat bland text. At times, tired metaphors create stale style (e.g., ``both sides of the road are strewn with abandoned cars begging for a decent burial''). In spite of its unevenness, the text and photographs broadly outline the life of a Chesapeake waterman and his family. Direct quotes from residents give vitality to the text. The black-and-white photographs are well composed and for the most part interesting. The book does achieve its aim of sketching life on Smith Island and will certainly be of local interest. On a larger scale, its success is incomplete. Don Reaber, Meadowdale High School, Lynnwood, Wash.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

It's hard to decide which of Wolf's talents is greaterhis writing or his photography. This portrait of a fragile, out-of-the-way island and its crab scrapers evokes tremendous feeling: Wolf's sun rises "pink and bloated," and somehow the shot reflects just that, though it's in black and white. Readers glimpse the difficult process of bringing the luscious seafood to market, along with aspects of growing up, going to church, communing with nature in a very different kind of communityone that is comparatively poor yet idyllic. Wolf admirably conveys his admiration for Smith Island throughout.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 002793330X
• ISBN 13: 9780027933307
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1