You Are Here
©Nina Crews 1998 Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers ISBN-10: 068815753X
About You Are Here
Giants!
Monsters!
A magic map!
Treasure!
These are only a few of the surprises in this brilliant picture book. And it must all be true because here are the photographs to prove it.
Sometimes all you need for magic is a rainy day. And a little imagination!
Reviews
When you can't go to the park to play, the next best thing is to transform your house into an adventurous terrain, as two young African American girls do on a rainy day. As in her previous books, Crews illustrates her story with photographs, but this time she uses a computer to create photo-composites that are a fascinating blend of the real and the imagined. The two girls turn a checkerboard into a magic map and go on a journey. They fly in a toy plane and land on an island, where a giant tells them, "You're welcome to stay—forever, in fact—because if you want to leave, you'll have to bring me something special." Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the giant looks just like the mask they saw on the mantelpiece in the girls' living room, and as they look more closely, they will find that the girls are actually standing on the mantel, talking to the mask. The adventure continues with an encounter with a gigantic monster, looking suspiciously like a gray cat (identified on the last spread as Cosmo Crews). In a hilarious series of photographs, the tiny girls try to move the snoozing beast off some of the treasures. Crews' young subjects look remarkably natural and in character throughout the story, and the whole book feels very true to the spirit of children's play, with the girls working various objects from their surroundings into their fun. Crews has added shadows, blended edges, and posed her young subjects with an eye toward the perspective needed in the finished picture. This is a joyful book, to be sure, one that will make children want to jump up and begin active, imaginative play. Booklist October 15, 1999