Below the Middle C Buzzed by the Bee (or Really) How I Lost This Place
Chris Leo, drawings by Marcellus Hall
Fifth Planet Press, 2006, $20 A hipster daylighting as a Gray Line tour guide spots his girlfriend’s mother and sweeps her into an improvisational Manhattan tour full of personal metaphor. A heady collaboration between White Pigeons author/musician Leo (of Vague Angels) and Chronogram Cafe performer/illustrator Hall, whose vibrant streetscapes hum with life.
Museum Trip
Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $15.00 Not a word is spoken in this graphically striking, mind-bending tale of a boy who lags behind his group on a class trip and enters one of the artworks. His journey through an intricate series of labyrinths satisfies on every level. Hudson artist Lehman, a Caldecott honoree for The Red Book, deserves to share her hero’s medal.
Denning’s Point: A Hudson River History
Jim Heron, prologue by Pete Seeger, foreword by John Cronin
Black Dome Press, 2006, $17.95 The 64-acre spit on the Hudson’s east bank vividly illustrates the Native American concept of “vertical history.” Beacon Institute for Rivers & Estuaries Project Historian Heron combs through its strata like a fascinated archaeologist, unearthing 19th-century brickworks, Revolutionary War lore, and prehistoric artifacts dating back 6,000 years.
Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends
John Leguizamo
Ecco, 2006, $25.95 Movie star, comedian, and part-time Ulster County resident Leguizamo tells all—or all he feels like—in this brash and hilarious in-your-face memoir. From his tumultuous childhood as a Colombian immigrant on the mean streets of Queens to razor-sharp dissections of Hollywood stereotypes and celebrity dish, Leguizamo does it his way.
This article appears in January 2007.
