ALA Booklist (Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Ansel Adams grew up in an area of San Francisco near a creek and a beach. Hyperactive and nature-loving as a child, he found indoor schooling difficult to endure. He was 13 when his father agreed to let him study at home as well as explore the natural world and the nearby world's fair. When his parents took 14-year-old Ansel to Yosemite and gave him his first camera, he found his calling. The story's last pages offer an inkling of what Adams would accomplish as an adult, while the appended biographical section offers a more detailed account of his life, accompanied by three small photos. The story flows well, varying from brief, informative statements to high-toned pronouncements ("giving voice to the voiceless and giving politics a purpose") to impressionistic language ("push-pull-flicker-wink-rush-roar-shimmer-shine!"). Like the text, the handsome digital-collage illustrations course evenly through Adams' childhood and teen years. Then a turn of the page brings him suddenly into adulthood as a bearded figure with a family and a photography career detailed in the last four double-page spreads. An interesting addition to biography collections.

School Library Journal (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gr 1-4 Ansel Adams (190284) couldn't sit still at home or at school; he loved running outside and observing everything in nature near his California home. A family trip to Yosemite Valley fanned Ansel's passion for nature and photography. Readers follow Ansel as he quickly surpasses the level of a beginner and pursues a life of nature photography. He is portrayed hiking the Sierra Nevada, living and working in Yosemite National Park, and traveling the country for the likes of Life magazine and the U.S. government, all to show "a nation its true nature" and thereby "giving voice to the voiceless and giving politics a purpose." Jenson-Elliott's lyrical text uses typography to reflect the photographer's buoyant spirit. Words and phrases such as BOOM , shiver-rumble-tumbled , and ripple-rush-ROAR add color and a sense of forward movement to the prose. Hale's collage illustrations (mixing traditional and digital techniques) offer a full palette of blues, greens, browns, and grays, through which Ansel's jumping, leaping, and running are contrasted with the straight lines of the enclosed spaces he tries to avoid. The visuals are a perfect complement to the text, particularly in the two vertical spreads that turn the book on its ear. The afterword completes the work with a fuller biography, resources, and photo reproductions. VERDICT An excellent introductory biography to inspire elementary students to look at art and the outdoors in a different way. Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Using vibrant, exclamatory language, Jenson-Elliott (Dig In!) paints a picture of a young Ansel Adams as a boy -on fire for learning,- captivated by nature from an early age and always on the move. It was -love at first sight- when Adams saw Yosemite Valley for the first time (-the ripple-rush-ROAR! of water and light! Light! Light!-), and the gift of a camera helped steer the direction of the life that would follow (-Ansel-s photos became a journal of everything he saw-). While Adams (1902-1984) mostly photographed nature in black and white, Hale (The Cambodian Dancer) goes straight for purple mountain majesties in her subtly textured collages, which include several vertically oriented spreads that allow her to fully reflect the height of sequoia trees or Yosemite-s High Sierra. An extensive afterword about Adams rounds out an inspiring account of one man-s lifelong love affair with the great outdoors. Ages 5-9. Author-s agent: Stefanie Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. (Sept.)