Market!

From Publishers Weekly famous marketplaces takes an everyday experience as an occasion to explore ethnic diversity. In Uganda, barefoot people walk to market "through the rain forest beneath the Mountains of the Moon," while at New York's Fulton Fish Market, "hard men in rubber boots... yell and argue in the artificial day of fluorescent lights." The vigor of a Moroccan market is rivaled only by the "kicking, biting, and screaming" in the donkey parking lot. Lewin (Peppe the Lamplighter) photographs his subjects before painting them in the studio, and his watercolors reflect the camera's stop-action immediacy. His dynamic, densely populated compositions make expert use of perspective to yank readers into the scene-sometimes with the unsettling, intriguing feeling that they have caught someone's eye. At the end of the whirlwind bustle, the adventure turns reflective with the final illustration, which depicts the vast, lonely, utterly still Sahara stretching behind the market in Morocco "like a giant tidal wave that on a whim might bury the oasis, the town, and the market forever." What a way to travel. Ages 5-up. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 1?Lewin takes readers on a whirlwind trip around the globe to marvel at the range of goods available for sale in the world's markets. Woolen sweaters and ponchos in Ecuador; wood carvings, flutes, garlic, and ginger in Nepal; Irish horses; Ugandan cows, bananas, and limes; fish in New York City; and dates, pottery, and donkeys in Morocco are just a few of the products depicted in the luminous watercolor paintings. In many pictures, the artist captures people on the move and at work. They filet fish, load boxes, haggle over prices, or create tempting displays of their wares. On other pages, vendors address viewers directly with inviting looks or a tired resignation that comes from hours of sitting in a hot stall. The uniqueness of each setting is vividly conveyed, whether it is a dusty roadside, a busy city street, or the horses on the long stone steps of a church in Ireland. The brightly colored clothing worn by the people in Ecuador contrasts with the light desert attire found in Morocco. Children will discover that buying and selling in a marketplace is not like a typical trip to the grocery store. The book is enjoyable and informative on its own, but it's also an appealing introduction to studying the countries included.?Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.