Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
It's a Snap!: George Eastman's First Photo
Illustrator: Bill Slavin
Historical Fiction Picture Book
For ages 7 to 9
Tundra Books, 2009 ISBN: 978-0887768811
When George Eastman was only fourteen, his father died and he had to leave school to get a job so that he could provide for his family. He worked his way up from office boy to banker, and he worked very hard. One day George told his mother than he needed “a break,” and she suggested that he should get a hobby. George liked pictures, and since he couldn’t paint, he decided to try taking photographs.
George soon found out that taking pictures was very involved. Cameras were large and heavy, you needed to capture the images on glass plates, and you needed a variety of chemicals to develop the pictures you took. Taking and developing just one picture took ages and ages and ages.
George began to wish that there was a camera on the market that was more user friendly, and his mother suggested that he should “do something about it,” which is exactly what he did. It took time, patience, and a lot of hard work to make what he was looking for, but in the end George created a camera that was truly a point-and-click device.
In this delightful story, Monica Kulling and Bill Salvin bring George Eastman’s story to life with interesting facts and delightful touches of humor.
