Neat book to introduce Harlem to younger students but will need to teach some of the landmarks used.

When you live in New York City, you start viewing picture books that take place there with an especially critical eye. Sometimes this can be a good thing, like when a book draws a subway stop incorrectly or fails to acknowledge the correct placement of the Central Park Mall. Other times, it's a handicap. The New York Public Library's 2004 list of 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know included Bryan Collier's 2000 ode to Harlem, "Uptown". Upon reading through it, I wondered why anyone would concentrate a picture book on such a specific area. What interest could this possibly hold for kids living in, oh say, Iowa or Nebraska? How could the author be so vain as to think that by zeroing in on a neighborhood, others would understand why it's important? Then I took a step back. I remembered that there are hundreds of books that do what "Uptown" has done. They define a neighborhood, a block, a city, or even a nation so that the children reading the book will be transported to entirely new geographical locations. If I lived anywhere else BUT New York I would have instantly recognized the charms of "Uptown" upon first setting eyes on it. Fortunately, I've mended my ways and can tell you truly that for a spot on description of a unique cultural place and time, Bryan Collier has Harlem's number.

Our narrator is a young boy who knows Uptown like the back of his hand. In his words we hear all the different things that he identifies with his home. Uptown is everything from chicken with waffles to barbershops filled with men in hats. There's jazz and weekend shopping on 125th street. There's girls wearing identical outfits on their way to church and "the orange sunset over the Hudson River". Finally, when all is said and done, there's just one thing the boy can truly say about this world. "Uptown is Harlem... Harlem world, my world. Uptown is home".

Using a hodge podge of mixed media in the form of watercolors and collages, Collier makes an array of complicated and highly detailed images out of fabrics and photographs. The brownstones that line the streets (described, deliciously, in a sentence that compares them to chocolate) are complex combinations of images that blend seamlessly with the rest of the book. Our hero has a very cool attitude about him too. Sometimes he's sitting on a chair eyeing photographs of his grandparents' wedding day. Sometimes he's shooting hoops. Sometimes he's just sitting listening to the Harlem Boy's Choir. Whatever the case, as long as you're in his presence you know he has a handle on every situation. This narrator is, ultimately, a reliable one. Surrounded by an organized muddle of straight and crazy images, you know he's at home in this raucous wonderful city.

Kids will like this book. Whether you're a Midwestern suburban homeowner, a Texan working the fields, or an L.A. sun worshipper, this book will still speak to you. It doesn't matter if you've never even set foot in New York City. It doesn't matter if you've, until this moment, avoided reading books about cities to your kids because you think they'll be confused by them. Regardless of your situation in life, "Uptown" will still speak to you and touch you in some way. This is a book about belonging to a culture of like-minded individuals. It's ultimately a celebration of a home. And whether you're comfortable with that or not, it's well worth the struggle. I think you'll find it a delight.