From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Margaret Bourke-White was a woman driven by the promise of adventure, fueled by the desire for perfection, and gifted with an extraordinary ability to capture images that made people look and linger. The author does an admirable job of conveying those qualities without losing sight of the person within the artist. Readers will enjoy reading about the photographer's childhood and her parents, whose strong work ethic, love of nature, and encouragement to face fears shaped her character. Most quotes are attributed within the sentence; a bibliography of the artist's own works and resources about her have complete citations. While Welch presents the drama of Bourke-White's assignmentsAsnapping for Fortune in the middle of the Dust Bowl, climbing atop Russian bomb shelters during World War II air raids, and braving land mines to cover Korean guerrillas for LifeAshe does not gloss over the personal tradeoffs resulting from her career choices, including her battle with Parkinson's disease. Crisp black-and-white photographs capture the progression of both her vision and visage. Challenging vocabulary and concepts are explained parenthetically or in brief endnotes. Smaller libraries that own Emily Keller's fine Margaret Bourke-White (Lerner, 1996) may opt to pass on this title since much of the information overlaps. Larger collections will want to have both. A moving view of the woman and of the birth and development of photojournalism with which she was so intimately associated.
Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Gr. 4^-8. Bourke-White's photographs documented the history of her times, from the excitement of technology and the drama of skyscrapers to the hardship of the Depression, the horror of Buchenwald, and the sorrow of South African gold miners. This readable biography shows how she influenced her profession with her development of the photo-essay at Life magazine and her shift from glossy advertising images to candid shots of ordinary people. Welch is careful not to idealize her subject, making clear that although the great photos show suffering, kindness, and courage, the person behind the camera remained cold, aggressive, and very much alone. As in Bourke-White's life, the focus here is on her work (her brief marriage to Erskine Caldwell gets only a half sentence). The book design is clear and attractive, with quality paper, a bibliography, and small photo reproductions throughout. However, readers will wish there were more--and larger--prints of those famous photos that Bourke-White took and that Welch describes so well. Hazel Rochman
