Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-8. This unusual book contains photographs from Lowry's past and her reflections on them. In the introduction, she suggests that the book will answer readers who ask, "How do you get ideas?" Toward that end, every section begins with a quotation from one of Lowry's books that relates in some way to the subject of the photo. Think of yourself sitting down with Lowry and looking through her albums while she stops and points at pictures of herself as a child and a teenager, photos of her parents and siblings and, then, more recent pictures of her children and grandchildren. Each picture evokes a memory that is a paragraph to a couple of pages long. Readers who remember the deftly portrayed family relationships in Lowry's novels will be fascinated by pictures of Lowry, her older sister, and her younger brother, as well as the often amusing tales of their youth. The mood is not always light, though, and few will be unmoved by Lowry's reflections on her son Grey's death in 1995. The only downside to the book is the thought of hundreds of other writers poring over their photo albums in hopes of a similar publication. Only a writer with Lowry's blend of humor, detachment, and storytelling ability could make the form work. And perhaps it will work only for readers who love her novels. Even so, that means a large potential audience. Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Introducing each section of this memoir with an excerpt from one of her novels, the author "unfolds her history in a glorious arc, invisibly threading its parts into a unified whole. Her connection of the everyday details of her life to the larger scope of her work adds a new dimension to her novels," said PW in a boxed review. All ages. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-Imagine sitting on a sofa with a friend and listening with fascination while she tells you about the pictures in her photo album. That is the feeling one has when browsing through this book of Lowry's family snapshots and reading her lively commentary on them. Readers will chuckle as they hear the tale of the frozen rat she attempted to revive by heating it in the oven and will smile knowingly at the unhappy look on her face when she was forced to wear lederhosen her mother brought home from Europe. The author's voice comes through strongly as she shares both her happiest and saddest times. Though the organization is somewhat chronological, many photos are loosely grouped by topic-"War," "Adolescence," "Opening a Trunk" and so forth-which allows her to make connections between people and events. She introduces each photo, or group, with a quotation from one of her books, making a connection between an event in her life and its fictional counterpart. In The Giver (Houghton, 1993), Lowry writes about the importance of memory, and here, she shows her readers the important role it plays in her own life-how she has used her memories in her work, how they have helped her get through difficult times, and how they enrich and connect us. Much more intimate and personal than many traditional memoirs, this work makes readers feel that Lowry is an old friend.-Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Young Adult) Jerry Spinelli Knots in My Yo-yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid 151 pp. Knopf 4/98 isbn 0-679-98791-6 15.99 Paper edition isbn 0-679-88791-1 9.99 (Intermediate, Young Adult) Those who seek biographical information about children's book authors-those who want to know the story of an author's childhood, what the author thinks and believes, and (always) where the author gets his or her ideas-will find bounty in these two memoirs. Although occasionally limited, both are nonetheless fascinating autobiographies that delve into the authors' pasts with the same incisiveness and humanity that distinguish their novels. As indicated by the subtitle, Spinelli's book focuses on his childhood in Norristown, Pennsylvania, from his earliest memory of a World War II air-raid siren through his high school years-an era made memorable by ordinary pleasures such as ""twin Popsicles and Bonomo's Turkish taffy, hightop Keds and a plaid cummerbund, Howdy Doody...on TV Tuesday nights, salamanders and snakes and candy cigarettes."" There is an everyboy universality to Spinelli's childhood, even as the author's keen powers of observation and recall turn his experiences into a unique personal history. Following a loose chronological order, the narrative is composed of highly-polished vignettes that juxtapose major childhood events-such as winning a grade school race and losing a loved family pet-with quiet reminiscences of exploring the nearby woods and listening to the passing of a nighttime train. What emerges is a self-portrait of a very likable kid: a self-professed ""good boy"" who secretly appreciates the daring of the class ""bad boy,"" a dedicated athlete, and, unbeknownst to even Jerry himself, a writer-in-the-making. Though a nonreader as a child, Spinelli's youthful daydreaming, active fantasy life, intense awareness, and thoughtful observations were all signs of his eventual career. And astute readers may well have a sense of dTja v- when reading Spinelli's story, as they recognize moments from his own life that were later artfully transfigured in his fiction. Perhaps the autobiography's strongest achievement is its depiction of Jerry's continual growth: solitary treks that take him further and further from home; the quiet abandonment of his Sunday school ""perfect attendance"" pins when he begins attending school dances. Spinelli's writing is honest and immediate throughout, yet there are still moments when one questions the primary audience for the book. Kids will love reading about the day Jerry wears full cowboy regalia to third grade, or his desperate sixth-grade need to get into a fight-any fight. Somewhat older kids will relish the scenes of first love. But only adults can fully appreciate his occasional nostalgic forays. In one of the most beautifully written chap-ters, ""Mrs. Seeton's Whistle,"" Spinelli recalls how one mother's dinnertime whistle drew all the neighborhood children home each evening and fantasizes about a ""gray, slow-moving"" Mrs. Seeton returning today. As she blows her whistle once again, the now-grown neighbor-hood chil-dren ""return from our homes and cemeteries around the world...all of us one more time heading home."" The passage is unlikely to provoke the same response from a child as it will from an adult. Still, it's not difficult to imagine that forty years from now some child of the 1990s will recall Spinelli's haunting words, and the long-delayed shiver will kick in. Such is the power of this richly rewarding autobiography. Knots in My Yo-yo String contains a scattered selection of family snapshots that serve as an appealing supplement to the written text. In Lowry's Looking Back, the photographs are central to the volume's format. Reading the slightly-oversized book is much like sitting on a couch and flipping through a family photo album while a favorite aunt sits alongside, identifying the subjects of the pictures, pointing out details you might miss, and providing delightful background stories. Unlike Spinelli's book, this volume provides a broader perspective on an author's life, tracing Lowry's entire lifespan to date and, in fact, going further back in time to provide a look at her mother's early life at the turn of the century. Each of Lowry's memories is highlighted by a clear black-and-white photograph, captioned by date, that reveals much about the author, her feelings, and the people she loves. Perhaps working under the assumption that ""a picture is worth a thousand words,"" Lowry lets the photographs do much of the talking, and her own text is succinct, thoughtful, and very much to the point. The written commentary that accompanies each picture is sometimes as brief as a single paragraph. ""Stories don't just appear out of nowhere,"" Lowry states in the book's introduction. They are made from ""memories, fragments, falsehood, and fantasies....things that happened, which caused other things to happen, so that eventually stories emerged."" Leapfrogging through time, Lowry links not-so-disparate moments in short chapters that are introduced with pointedly appropriate or subtly apt quotations from her own published works. The chapter named ""Wet Ones"" begins with a quote from Anastasia Krupnik stating her grudging willingness to change her brother's diapers-""Only wet ones, though. Nothing else""-and is followed by six-year-old Lois's joyful reaction to having a baby brother in 1943, and a memory of her daughter Alix's jealousy of her own baby brother in 1962. Lowry has written what is essentially a snapshot autobiography-a loosely constructed series of memories frozen in time, and it is left to the reader to fill in the gaps. Lowry's early, warm recollections of her protective older sister Helen are later followed by an attractive photo-graph of the teenaged Helen on the beach and the stark statement that ""ten years after that, at twenty-eight, she will die of cancer."" There is little further commentary. But many readers will realize that Lowry has already explored the grief of a sister's death elsewhere-in her first published novel, A Summer to Die. Other memories are shared more fully. The author is quite forthcoming in describing ""the saddest day of my life"" when her Air-Force-pilot son is killed in a plane crash. The memories of his funeral and the family's recovery are poignantly recalled. As with Spinelli's autobiography, there are moments when Lowry seems to be writing for an adult audience. Young readers will empathize with the bookish, animal-loving young Lois, especially as she dramatizes scenes from a favorite childhood book, The Yearling, unhappily wears lederhosen and a feathered cap that her mother bought in Switzerland, and, as a teenager tired of her ""stodgy, dull"" name, creates a new moniker (""Cynthia Randolph"") when making an appointment at the beauty parlor. But her discussion of finding a new love after di-vorce needs more adult com-miseration, and children may not connect with the scenes in which Lowry engages in fantasy conversations with her mother. Despite these inclu-sions, Lowry's autobiography is consistently readable. While not as emotionally charged as Spinelli's book, Looking Back has a subtle power that remains long after the last page of the memory album is closed. peter d. sieruta (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A unique format for a memoirLowry (Stay!, 1997, etc.) offers up quotes from her books, dates, black-and-white photographs, and recollections of each shot, as well as the other memories surrounding it. The technique is charming and often absorbing; readers meet Lowry's grandparents, parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren in a manner that suggests thumbing through a photo album with her. The tone is friendly, intimate, and melancholy, because living comes with sorrow: her sister died of cancer at age 28, and Lowry's son, a pilot, died when his plane crashed. Her overall message is taken from the last words that son, Grey, radioed: ``You're on your own.'' The format of this volume is accessible and it reflects the way events are rememberedone idea leading to another, one memory jostling another; unlike conventional autobiographies, however, it will leave readers with unanswered questions: Who was her first husbandand father of her children? Why are her surviving children hardly mentioned? Why does it endbut for one entryin 1995? It's still an original presentation, one to be appreciated on its own merits. (Memoir. 10-14)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
