Canyon

Reviewed: January 17, 2003
By: Text by Eileen Cameron Photography by Michael Collier
Publisher: Mikaya Press
32 pages, $24.95

We don’t tend to think of geology and poetry in the same breath, but Canyon is a book which might make us change our minds.

Canyon is a children’s book created to dramatize the action of water in the creation of these impressive natural formations. The thirteen photographs were taken along the Colorado River and its feeder streams in the vicinity of the world famous Grand Canyon.

Cameron’s contribution is a simple, yet powerful, 38 line poem, printed on the pages facing the photograph, beginning with the words

Water falls softly
In cold snow crystals
Onto the Mountaintop ...

It’s an effective poem with lots of dramatic imagery. The combination of words and pictures is very effective. How effective it will be with children is the part I’m not sure about. Kids usually seem to like a story and a few characters. I’m not sure how they will react to photographs of water carving rocks with nary a person nor an animal in sight.

It’s a lovely book, but it may be aimed at the wrong audience.

Print Preview