Window

"The effect human beings have on the landscape around them is the theme of Baker's most recent tour de force....The artist's multimedia collage constructions are, as ever, fascinating in their realistic detail and powerfully convey the dramatic message.."—Horn Book.

Publishers Weekly

The creator of Where the Forest Meets the Sea offers another warning about the environment--somewhat didactically--in this wordless picture book. Each spread features the window of Sam's room, from which the reader can see the landscape being destroyed as Sam grows up--forest and animals are replaced by neighbors and houses, factories are built, graffiti is scribbled on walls and other problems indigenous to populous cities appear. At the end of the book Sam holds up his baby to a new window where the tree-filled landscape contains an ominous sign advertising a new subdivision. ``By the year 2020,'' Baker says in a concluding note, ``no wilderness will remain on our planet, outside that protected in national parks and reserves.'' Her distinctive collages are extraordinary in their complexity, but children will need an adult to explain how, ``by understanding and changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference.'' All ages. (Apr.)

Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.