Smile! (review)
2006; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 60; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2006.0796
ISSN1558-6766
Autores ResumoReviewed by: Smile! Deborah Stevenson McCaughrean, Geraldine Smile!; illus. by Ian McCaughrean. Random House, 2006 [128p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-93640-8$16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-83640-3$14.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-6 When a photographer's plane crashes in a desolate landscape, he's rescued by two local kids, Sutira and her brother, Olu, and taken to their village. There he tries to explain to the isolated and untechnologized community, which survives by hunting and eking out what living they can through their livestock and agriculture, who he is. His instant-print camera is a miracle to the village, and Flash, as the book dubs the stranded photographer, offers to use his remaining frames, ten in all, for whatever the village chief chooses. The chief in turn suggests that Flash select the images himself, and the photographer then goes on an odyssey of visual meaning wherein he must decide what pictures would be most worthwhile. This unusual story by respected British author McCaughrean has the thoughtfulness of a fable combined with the plainspoken accessibility of middle-grades domestic realism. While the setup suggests a survival story, this is actually a vivid exploration of the notion of significance and of the value—and limitations—of capturing an image for retention; Flash's pictures feature, for instance, the village's precious, single remaining cow, from a vantage point that displays her sides bulging with the calf to come; Sutira's young cousin, Tixa, captured on film before she dies of "wilting sickness"; the elaborate stone paintings of the village's ancestors, fading now after [End Page 137] generations of sun but still likely to last longer than their photographed image. Despite the book's obvious awareness of explorer clichés and consciousness of the scenario's unlikelihood (the villagers all speak English, a fact that even Flash's rescuer scoffs at), there's an air of generic exoticism to the villagers and their ways, but the setup depends on the isolation of the village, and their customs are credibly envisioned. The art limits its depiction to the photographs described in the story, so its cartoonishly literal style is thematically suitable as well as inviting to timid readers. With its streamlined, easy-chapter text and thought-provoking subject, this would make an intriguing readaloud for older audiences as well as a chapter book to take readers off the literal and literary beaten path. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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