Culture 2 - African American: Uptown

Collier, Bryan. UPTOWN. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2000. ISBN 9780805073997

UPTOWN is a boy's story about what makes his neighborhood special. The special things are very specific and the few words for each thing leaves room for the wonderful collage and watercolor pictures to help tell the story.

The text is very simply written and tells about our character's favorite things in Harlem. "Uptown is canvas awnings on the windows to block the sun. It's like the buildings are all dressed up. Several of the things mentioned are large cultural markers with Harlem being the largest. The narrator tells of The Apollo Theater, jazz music and the Boys Choir of Harlem. A specific reference to "a Van Der Zee photograph" sent me researching because I had not heard of him. I discovered he was an African American photographer who is best known for taking pictures of black New Yorkers. Most comments were about the 3 sisters who were dressed alike in bright yellow dresses. The comments mostly referred to their hair which all have in many braids and pulled up in high pony tails and tied with colorful fabrics. Students loved the picture but had a hard time relating to the fact that these girls looked too old to be dressing alike to go to church.

The words tell a simple story but this book is all about the pictures. The collages will appeal to children especially but older readers can appreciate the detail. For example the pictures of brownstones compared to bars of chocolate are created with pictures of Cadbury chocolate bars. The Van Der Zee photograph page includes very small photos inside different types of frames. The combination of realism and painting will hold the reader's attention for a lot longer than it takes to read the text. So many more details will come out in subsequent viewings of the illustrations.

BOOKLIST - "It's the artwork that takes center stage, the gorgeous, textured collages giving impressions of spaces and moments in the boy's neighborhood."

HORN BOOK GUIDE - "...the reader's senses are bathed in the sights and sounds that make Harlem this small boy's paradise."

This story is also available in audio:
ISBN 9781430100522

Make a collage and write about your hometown favorites.

Listen to the Boys Choir of Harlem:
"Up in Harlem"
ASIN B00000IZTM

visit Bryan Collier's website:
http://www.bryancollier.com/