conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a book titled The Basket Counts about Often, Abstract, Adoff's with the genre: Children's Books, Geography & Cultures.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: There is a studied pomp to both art and text in this collection of poems about basketball. the author's debut artwork is sometimes visually interesting, as when high-rise buildings menacingly dwarf the city playground chain-link fence, or when a wheelchair-bound player pops "the s h a r p e s t wheelchair/ wheeeelies." His full-page paintings feature careening angles, skewed perspectives, a multicultural cast of characters and hip teens. Often, however, the author's attempt to convey symbolic action is cartoon-like: literal flames surround players who are in the zone as the text announces, "Me/ hot./ You/ burn. While Adoff's "shaped speech" (made manifest in unorthodox letter spacing) is authoritative, it tends to call attention to itself rather than amplify the substance of the poems. Despite its striking cover of a basketball with a Seurat-like pebbled surface and shiny black lines, this self-conscious book about shooting hoops misses the mark. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) <BR>Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Abstract.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: There is a studied pomp to both art and text in this collection of poems about basketball. the author's debut artwork is sometimes visually interesting, as when high-rise buildings menacingly dwarf the city playground chain-link fence, or when a wheelchair-bound player pops "the s h a r p e s t wheelchair/ wheeeelies. " His full-page paintings feature careening angles, skewed perspectives, a multicultural cast of characters and hip teens. Often, however, the author's attempt to convey symbolic action is cartoon-like: literal flames surround players who are in the zone as the text announces, "Me/ hot. / You/ burn. " Abstract curlicues swirl around the ball, net and players to suggest movement. While Adoff's "shaped speech" (made manifest in unorthodox letter spacing) is authoritative, it tends to call attention to itself rather than amplify the substance of the poems. Despite its striking cover of a basketball with a Seurat-like pebbled surface and shiny black lines, this self-conscious book about shooting hoops misses the mark. Ages 8-12. (Feb. ) <BR>Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.