Uptown by Bryan Collier

Bibliography

Collier, Bryan. UPTOWN. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2000. ISBN 0-8050-5721-8

Plot Summary

A young boy describes Uptown, the area of Harlem he has lived in and obviously loves. He mentions places like the barbershop where the men get their hair cut, people like his grandfather, food found in his neighborhood like chicken and waffles and the girls in their yellow dresses going to church. As he describes his way through his area of New York, the boy shows the audience how much he knows about his neighborhood. By the end of the book, he tells the reader’s uptown his Harlem, his town.

Critical Analysis

Collier, who we are told in the book jacket has been painting since he was fifteen, uses colorful paintings and photographs that accurately depict great memories of Harlem. The paintings are like collages that jump off the page. For example, the newspaper being read by the men in the barbershop has lines in all directions like a collage that was laid out in the shape of a newspaper. The pictures are colorful and show the real world that is Harlem through the eyes of a young boy. Collier grew up in Maryland, but his pictures and words make it obvious he loves Harlem, the town where he now resides. The pictures simple sentences to a true story of love. The repetition on each page (“Uptown is…”) makes the book easy to read, but the paintings elevate the story.

Review Excerpts/Awards

Coretta Scott King Award winner

Kirkus Reviews: “Collier debuts with a set of dazzling paint-and-photo collages paired to a child's tribute to his Harlem neighborhood. From his window the young narrator sees "Uptown" in the Metro North commuter train crawling caterpillar-like over the river; sisters in matching dresses parading to church; weekend shoppers on 125th Street; jazz; Van Der Zee photographs; playground basketball; chicken and waffles served any time of day. ("At first it seems like a weird combination, but it works.") This complex, many-layered vibe is made almost tangible by the kaleidoscopic illustrations. For instance, the row of brownstones ".when you look at them down the block. They look like they're made of chocolate." Indeed, their bricks are photos of chocolate bars. Walter Dean Myers's poem Harlem (1997), illustrated in similar style by Christopher Myers, conveys a deeper sense of the African American community's history, but this makes an engagingly energetic once-over.”

Publisher’s Weekly: "Collier's watercolor and collage artwork effectively blends a boy's idealism with the telling details of the city streets in this picture-book tour of Harlem.”

Connections

• Have students describe what they love most about their town. Use pictures to illustrate their favorite places in their hometown.
• Students can try to make their own collages like those used by Collier to describe the stories they are telling.
• Other books illustrated by Collier:
  o Schotter, Roni. Doo-Wop Pop. ISBN 0060579684
  o Rappaport, Doreen. John’s Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon. ISBN 0786808179
• o Collier, Bryan. Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali. ISBN 0763616923