Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2015 This picture book introduces gifted African American photographer Gordon Parks. Early in the narrative, Gordon’s white teacher tells her young black pupils, “You’ll all wind up porters and waiters.” Parks grew up supporting himself with odd jobs that included, yes, porter and waiter. But when he bought a used camera, it changed his life. As a photographer for a government agency, he documented the lives of black people in Washington, D.C., and the discrimination they faced. The story concludes with an account of his iconic photo American Gothic. Created with a certain elegance of line, Christoph’s artwork includes many haunting, beautifully composed scenes. Although the narrative features Parks’ determination to document African Americans, it offers no dates and little historical context for young children, who may also need help with terms such as porter, Life magazine, and Renaissance man. Additional biographical information appears in the back matter, along with four small photos. This handsome book will help children better understand the widespread racial segregation and discrimination in twentieth-century America. - Copyright 2015 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2015 Gr 1–3—This picture book biography of Gordon Parks highlights the growth of his career as a photographer. Despite receiving little encouragement at school, Parks not only excelled at photography but also wrote novels, penned poetry, and composed music. The rich, varied text ("Boiling mad, Parks vows to lay bare racism with his lens.") is complemented by the illustrations, which sharply contrast Parks's life—mostly shown in full color—with sketches of his photographs—in black-and-white or sepia tones. Parks's career, which began with fashion shots and portraits, took off when he landed a job working for the Farm Security Administration in Washington, DC. There, he became keenly aware of the inequalities between blacks and whites and began to document these differences. When his boss directed him to talk to Ella Watson, a cleaning lady in the building, he photographed her at home with her family and produced his most famous photograph: American Gothic. An author's note provides additional information and includes reproductions of four of Parks's photographs. While the book gets off to a choppy start, moving very rapidly over the photographer's early life, it provides a much-needed portrait of a talented individual and views of his work. VERDICT This effective overview is a solid addition for those looking to beef up their biography collections. Fans of Weatherford's Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century (Knopf, 2014), Becoming Billie Holiday (Wordsong, 2009), and I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer (Walker, 2007) will appreciate this attractive offering.—Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2015 From fashion models to charwomen, glamour to despair, the portrait and candid photography of Gordon Parks captured life’s extremes in mid-twentieth century America. Weatherford’s spare text follows Parks from a childhood that held an unpromising future for a black man, through a series of odd jobs and the chance purchase of his first camera, and on to his early career as a “government photographer” in search of a subject worth committing to film. With the encouragement of his boss, Parks photographed cleaning lady Ella Watson, whose iconic pose with mop and broom before the American flag was slyly entitled American Gothic and launched Parks’ mission to document racism that too often passed unremarked in everyday life. Parks’ earliest years zip by here in a blur, and listeners will need adult assistance in connecting how each career move prepared him for the next. The sleek compositions and neutral tones of Christoph’s paintings suggest the black and white photography for which Parks is best known, but inclusion of a scant four reproductions (small, at that, and tucked into the back matter) will certainly leave the audience wishing for more. Nonetheless, this is a promising vehicle for introducing young children to the power of photography as an agent for social change, and it may make them aware of contemporary victims of injustice in need of an advocate with a camera. EB - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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