K-Gr 4-A young boy provides a particularly inviting, personally guided tour of his uptown home, New York City's Harlem. The Metro-North railroad, chicken and waffles, shopping on 125th Street, the Apollo Theater, jazz, and summer basketball games at the playground are all part of his neighborhood's charm. As in Hope Lynne Price's These Hands (Hyperion, 1999), Collier's evocative watercolor-and-collage illustrations create a unique sense of mood and place. Bold color choices for text as well as background pages complement engagingly detailed pictures of city life. For example, the words "Uptown is a song sung by the Boys Choir of Harlem. Each note floats through the air and lands like a butterfly" are printed in bright yellow and blue on a deep red background. A closer look at the illustrations accompanying the lines "Uptown is a row of brownstones-They look like they're made of chocolate" guarantees a smile at Collier's clever use of Cadbury candy bars. While Uptown does not offer the adult intensity of Walter Dean Myers's Harlem (Scholastic, 1997), it does share its warmth and vitality. Looking from his window high above the sights and sounds of the city, the young narrator concludes, "Uptown is Harlem-Harlem world, my world. Uptown is home." From his perspective, it's the very best place to be, and readers will find it difficult to disagree.-Alicia Eames, New York City Public Schools (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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. (Picture book. 7-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Ages 4^-8. Like the Myers' Caldecott Honor Book Harlem (1997), Collier's Uptown depicts scenes of Harlem life in lavish collages: a row of brownstones, shopping on 125th Street, the Apollo Theater, a jazz club, a barber shop, and more. But this time the text is accessible to a younger audience, and the voice belongs to a young boy instead of a literary adult. Each page begins with an observation--for example, "Uptown is a caterpillar," --that is followed by a few lines expanding the idea--" Well, it's really the Metro-North train as it eases over the Harlem River." At times, the boy's voice is too sophisticated ("Uptown is a Van Der Zee photograph"), and there's little story, even though the book is classified as fiction. It's the artwork that takes center stage, the gorgeous, textured collages giving impressions of spaces and moments in the boy's neighborhood. Suggest this to elementary-school teachers in lower grades who are looking for new materials about place and home. --Gillian Engberg

"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," said PW. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A young boy proudly takes the reader uptown to tour his Harlem, one of the world's most famous neighborhoods. From small intimate places such as the local barbershop to the world-famous Apollo Theater, the reader's senses are bathed in the sights and sounds that make Harlem this small boy's paradise. Collier's watercolor and collage illustrations, showing contemporary city scenes, are bold and striking, but at times they are too ornate for this lighthearted book. From HORN BOOK Fall 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.