Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Lonely Phone Booth

The Lonely Phone Booth is a book by Peter Ackerman, with illustrations by Max Dalton (Boston: David R. Godine, 2010). The Phone Booth (yes, a proper name) stands at the corner of West End Avenue and 100th Street. It is one of the last outdoor phone booths in Manhattan. From Peter Ackerman’s website:

Kept clean and polished, the Phone Booth was proud and happy . . . until, the day a businessman strode by and shouted into a shiny silver object, “I’ll be there in ten minutes!” Soon everyone was talking into these shiny silver things, and the Phone Booth stood alone and empty, unused and dejected.

The intended audience is four- to eight-year-olds, preternaturally wistful four- to eight-year-olds perhaps. In truth, I think the intended audience is me.

comments: 2

Other Elaine said...

About five years ago (or more) I bought some books from David R. Godine, Publishers, and ever since I've been on the mailing and e-mail lists. Didn't win the copy of this book, but I did enter the drawing...

So many things are disappearing. And after my husband's cell phone died this week, it reminded me that our back-up system may be a thing of the past!

Michael Leddy said...

Oops — I forgot to include David R. Godine’s name (just added). His books are beautiful. I esp. like his edition of Eric Gill’s An Essay on Typography.