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Window / Jeannie Baker.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: London : Walker, 2002.Description: 1 volumes (unpaged) : chiefly color illustrations ; 28cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0744594863 (pbk.) :
  • 0744596769 (hbk.) :
  • 0744594871 (big bk)
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Awards:
  • Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, 1992
Summary: Chronicles the events and changes in a young boy's life and in his environment, from babyhood to grownup, through wordless scenes observed from the window of his room. A sophisticated picture book. Suggested level: primary.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Childrens Picture Books Davis (Central) Library Children's Picture Books Children's Picture Books BAK 1 Available T00582636
Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Stunning and unique mixed media collages will amaze readers in this powerful, eco-conscious picture book by the internationally renowned Jeannie Baker.In this visually compelling look at our changing environment by Jeannie Baker, illustrator of the critically-acclaimed Mirror and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as the eye can see. With each page, the boy grows and the scene changes. At first, in a clear patch of forest, a single house appears. A few years pass and there is a village in the distance... When the boy is twenty, will he recognize the view from his window? Illustrated with elaborate and gorgeous collage constructions, Window is a wordless picture book that speaks volumes.

A wordless book.

Originally published: London : Julia MacRae, 1991.

Chronicles the events and changes in a young boy's life and in his environment, from babyhood to grownup, through wordless scenes observed from the window of his room. A sophisticated picture book. Suggested level: primary.

Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, 1992

5 7 11 20 47 60 62 75 81 89 111 114 135 151

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The creator of Where the Forest Meets the Sea offers another warning about the environment--somewhat didactically--in this wordless picture book. Each spread features the window of Sam's room, from which the reader can see the landscape being destroyed as Sam grows up--forest and animals are replaced by neighbors and houses, factories are built, graffiti is scribbled on walls and other problems indigenous to populous cities appear. At the end of the book Sam holds up his baby to a new window where the tree-filled landscape contains an ominous sign advertising a new subdivision. ``By the year 2020,'' Baker says in a concluding note, ``no wilderness will remain on our planet, outside that protected in national parks and reserves.'' Her distinctive collages are extraordinary in their complexity, but children will need an adult to explain how, ``by understanding and changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference.'' All ages. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Ages 3-5. This wordless picture book traces the urbanization of a countryside as the changing landscape is seen through a bedroom window. In the first scene, a mother and baby look out at a wilderness that reaches to the horizon. Later views, covering a period of 24 years, show the construction of a road, houses, more houses, businesses, and skyscrapers, until nothing is left of the original landscape. Changes in the child's size and activities mark the elapsing time, as do age-appropriate items left on the windowsill, such as birthday cards, a teddy bear, a pet frog, and so on. The last scene shows the grown child, now a father himself, looking out of a different window onto yet another countryside, one that is already being destroyed for new housing. The eyecatching illustrations are done as collage constructions with an intriguing variety of textures. A good way of introducing environmental concerns to the young. ~--Leone McDermott

Horn Book Review

The story in this wordless book is told through the outdoor scene viewed over time from one child's bedroom window. Initially, a mother holding her infant son gazes out at the lush Australian bush; as the boy gets older, civilization swallows up the wilderness. The multimedia collage constructions powerfully convey the dramatic message. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Baker's latest plea for the environment, like Van Allsburg's Just a Dream (1990), is explicit: 12 views through the same framing window detail what happens during a single generation as ugly urban life crowds out a wilderness vista. The first picture's infant becomes a boy who litters and traps wild creatures; his toys evolve from plastic dinosaurs to rockets. In the 13th picture, he and his baby are, looking out a new window on another forest where ""house blocks"" are already for sale. This talented Australian's collages of natural and other materials are especially suited to these beautifully evocative illustrations, in which the many carefully chosen details build a realistic picture of civilization's sorry progress. There's contagious concern here, and a great deal to ponder and discuss--even more powerful because the message is visual: a brief, last-page note is the only text. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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