Girls Standing on Lawns

Kalman, Maira and Daniel Handler. Girls Standing on Lawns. 2014. 64p. ISBN 978-0-8707-908-1. FIC KAL on the library shelves.

This delightful short book is a collaboration between Maira Kalman, a children’s book author and artist, and Daniel Handler, who writes under the name Lemony Snicket. This book features forty black and white photographs from the Modern Museum of Art in New York City, along with short poetic entries describing some of the photos. Kalman herself painted twenty scenes to accompany the photographs.

Each of the photographs was taken by an unknown person, and Kalman and Handler meditate on why the photos might have been taken, who might have taken them, and what they represent. The themes of memory and childhood are explored, and readers are asked to imagine the lives of these children.