Window

Baker, Jeannie

ISBN 10: 0688089186 ISBN 13: 9780688089184

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 1991

Synopsis

"The effect human beings have on the landscape around them is the theme of Baker's most recent tour de force....The artist's multimedia collage constructions are, as ever, fascinating in their realistic detail and powerfully convey the dramatic message.."--Horn Book.

About this title

About the Author

Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1 Up-- A mother, holding her newborn son, gazes out the window of his room at lush vegetation, tropical birds, a pond, a kangaroo. Ten double-page illustrations following show the development--during a 20-year period--of the area outside the window. As Sam (the baby) grows older, the land is cleared, a road is built, then a farm. A housing development goes up, then takes over a hill that was once green with lush growth. Development becomes suburb, then city, complete with billboards, high-rises, noise pollution, litter, and overpopulation. Sam marries and moves to a new house in the country, where the final window scene shows him, holding his baby, staring at a sign announcing, "House Blocks For Sale". Words are unnecessary, as Baker's carefully rendered collage scenes explicitly detail the situation. Varying symbolic objects on Sam's windowsill (and the cracking and peeling of paint on the wall) add to the book's message. Baker's meticulous collages, formed from natural materials, clay, fabric, and real hair, are so detailed that they require many viewings. A final, short author's note explains the inspiration for the book: ". . .by understanding and changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference." This unusual, exceptionally well-crafted picture book might be a good way to begin. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0688089186
• ISBN 13: 9780688089184
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Baker Jeannie