Ghosts of the Southwest: The Phantom Gunslinger and Other Real-Life Hauntings (Haunted America Series) - Hardcover

Wood, Ted

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802784828 ISBN 13: 9780802784827

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1997

Synopsis

Describes homes and hotels, restaurants and towns in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas and the ghosts that haunt them

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

This easy-to-follow informational book serves two excellent purposes: to introduce the subject to aspiring filmmakers and computer addicts, and to explain computer animation to those who have seen it in movies or on television and remain curious about its workings. Baker employs the picture-book format, which, without booktalking, may turn away older children (as will the use of a typeface that imitates a childlike scrawl for the subtitle and chapter headings) who have an interest in the subject. In general, the book suffers from overdesign, with complicated folios pasted over an angry-faced computer screen, a horse in red silhouette to be animated by flipping the pages, and pastel- colored geometric shapes--including a robotic face--that are repeated on every page. Fortunately, the content rises above this silliness. Beginning with the description of the cel-painting of Disney's first cartoon, through the early days of computer graphics, Baker introduces the concepts of 3-D shading, modeling, and wireframe representation--illustrated images that are familiar to readers. He clearly defines scanners and motion, while the mostly full-color photographs precisely demonstrate the most difficult concepts of the digestible short paragraphs. The principle of the ``rendering'' process, in which computers crunch numbers overnight to calculate how shadows fall on nearby objects to create a lifelike scene, is impressive. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6. An abundance of large, eerily lit, full-color photographs of haunted places in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma make these ghost tales seem real. The 13 locations are all public areas, such as hotels, restaurants, historic sites, and even a book store. As the author confesses in his introduction, the spectral figures evident in the photographs are simply models, not real ghosts, but some of them do startle the eye as a real apparition might. Some, though not all of the stand-ins are appropriately attired as the spirits' time and station would require. Like red-haired Rebecca in the Lodge at Cloudcroft, New Mexico, who appears in guest bathrooms and moves ashtrays, most of the apparitions are benign practical jokers. Yet a haunted hospital, soon to be a hotel in Jerome, Arizona, sports a scalpel-wielding ghost and can boast that every caretaker of the building since it closed as a hospital died a "grizzly" death. Most of the featured characters are unknown outside their local area, but Wyatt Earp can still be seen in the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona. Stylized maps in the introduction and at the beginning of each state's section depict the approximate locations. Each place and spirit has its own personality engagingly described for potential sightseers.?Ann G. Brouse, Big Flats Branch Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802784828
• ISBN 13: 9780802784827
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 48