This Is My Eye: A New York Story by Neela Vaswani (review)

Don't worry, non-New Yorkers; there's plenty here in this photoessay from the POV of a fictional young resident to appeal to all. Our unnamed narrator takes an artistic look at her surroundings, noting that "puddles are mirrors," "walls tell stories," and "stories are everywhere." You can look at the world through all kinds of lenses ("Through the peephole, Grandma is tiny"; "Rainy days have polka dots") and notice that "shapes and patterns are everywhere" (in skyscraper windows, fire escapes, street gratings, and suspension bridge cabling). Throughout, the emphasis is not merely on the many things there are to see but on how changing your point of view affects what's visually notable, so that plants growing in sidewalk cracks ("Little things grow in little spaces") and the craftsmanship behind building ("Someone fit these together" of a mortared wall with stones of varying size) get as much attention as the skyline. While a few spreads digress less usefully, albeit playfully, it's that emphasis on varying perspectives that makes this valuable, since kids in all kinds of places will benefit from the prompt to reexamine their surroundings through fresh eyes. Page design gives appropriate prominence to the photos (most taken with just a smartphone, according to the note), which bleed to the edges in varying visual rhythms that partner effectively with the text's touch of lyricism. While New Yorkers can use this to revel in their city, kids everywhere will find this a vibrant window to the world that will encourage them to look again.