Polka Dot Parade: A Book about Bill Cunningham

In keeping with Bill Cunningham's singular fascination with the visual splendor of fashion, Blumenthal and D'yans offer a close-up on the photographer's creative pursuits. With dynamic processions of swooshing colors, patterns, and fabrics, D'yans vividly conveys how Cunningham viewed New York City fashion through his eyes and lens. One figure wears a trailing cloak that features an inky landscape; elsewhere, moths and dragonflies emerge from a woman's gown. Cunningham is portrayed as an impassioned observer who captured the beauty of his subjects in unguarded moments on the street, or from the handlebars of his beloved bicycle. Blumenthal peppers her prose with quotations from Cunningham that speak to his devotion to his art and his celebration of clothing as a true expression of human individuality. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)

Gr 2-5--A picture book biography of the New York Times' fashion photographer Bill Cunningham offers plenty of glitz but little substance or usefulness. Cunningham spent decades taking photographs of glamorously dressed New Yorkers while he lived in spartan accommodations and dressed in a self-imposed uniform. As in Cunningham's photographs, the illustrations are fairly homogeneous: nearly all the people shown in the colorful watercolor illustrations are tall and willowy, dressed in eye-catching Western-style clothing and makeup, with no visible disabilities. While the text claims that fashion has nothing to do with wealth, pages of rich people at "first-nighter galas" and "doing puddle-jumping dances in their thousand-dollar shoes" hint otherwise. No particular connection is made to children. Bibliography, quotation sources, and an author's note constitute the back matter. The format does not suit the subject well and is unlikely to find much of a young audience either for pleasure reading or biography reports. VERDICT Of interest only to specialized fashion collections.--Sarah Stone, San Francisco Public Library