"My Moms was a good person. She cared, but she just couldn't hack us no more. She kept saying she gonna kill herself, too. The day she died, she told me that my father hit her, and I told her, That was good for you, for not cooking for him. And she left. I didn't know she took the pills, though. The next day, they told me she was dead."--Pistol This searing portrait of inner-city life takes us inside one of America's deadly urban battlefronts--the Puerto Rican neighborhood of Alphabet City on New York's Lower East Side. With unnerving clarity, Geoffrey Biddle shows us the people who live there, summoning their spirit against the brutalizing conditions of poverty, joblessness, drugs, crime, and violence. Capturing life in this ghetto on film and in words with rawness and compassion, he shows the human toll of impoverishment and neglect. In 1977 Geoffrey Biddle photographed the residents of Alphabet City for the first time. Ten years later, he returned to this same area and photographed many of the same people again, this time also interviewing them. Alphabet City is the result of those encounters. While the stories are unique, they coalesce into a single tale all the more jarring for the matter-of-fact tone in which it is told. There is Ariel, whose dreams of becoming a boxer were destroyed when he contracted AIDS. And Linda, raising three sons while sleeping in the street, hungry and drug-addicted. There are also tales of human resilience like Richard's, a defiant former gang member who now attends college. These stories belong not only to one New York neighborhood, but to urban ghettos across the United States. Framed by Miguel Algarn's compelling introduction and dramatized by the speakers' own testimony, Geoffrey Biddle's photographs are haunting portrayals of a ravaged community battling ineffectually against deprivation and betrayal. This book forces us to see faces and to hear voices that won't be easy to forget, and yet which in the end are not so different from our own. "My Moms was a good person. She cared, but she just couldn't hack us no more. She kept saying she gonna kill herself, too. The day she died, she told me that my father hit her, and I told her, That was good for you, for not cooking for him. And she left. I didn't know she took the pills, though. The next day, they told me she was dead."--Pistol This searing portrait of inner-city life takes us inside one of America's deadly urban battlefronts--the Puerto Rican neighborhood of Alphabet City on New York's Lower East Side. With unnerving clarity, Geoffrey Biddle shows us the people who live there, summoning their spirit against the brutalizing conditions of poverty, joblessness, drugs, crime, and violence. Capturing life in this ghetto on film and in words with rawness and compassion, he shows the human toll of impoverishment and neglect. In 1977 Geoffrey Biddle photographed the residents of Alphabet City for the first time. Ten years later, he returned to this same area and photographed many of the same people again, this time also interviewing them. Alphabet City is the result of those encounters. While the stories are unique, they coalesce into a single tale all the more jarring for the matter-of-fact tone in which it is told. There is Ariel, whose dreams of becoming a boxer were destroyed when he contracted AIDS. And Linda, raising three sons while sleeping in the street, hungry and drug-addicted. There are also tales of human resilience like Richard's, a defiant former gang member who now attends college. These stories belong not only to one New York neighborhood, but to urban ghettos across the United States. Framed by Miguel Algarn's compelling introduction and dramatized by the speakers' own testimony, Geoffrey Biddle's photographs are haunting portrayals of a ravaged community battling ineffectually against deprivation and betrayal. This book forces us to see faces and to hear voices that won't be easy to forget, and yet which in the end are not so different from our own.

Travel the globe with 32 typographic prints inspired by the world’s greatest cities, all the way from Amsterdam to Zurich, with stops in Paris, Rio and Tokyo along the way. Also features quirky trivia on each city.

Through photographs, the alphabet is depicted with words, from a to z, etched in concrete, spray-painted on walls, or stuck into glass in an urban landscape.

Lake Shore Drive, the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier...just the mention of these iconic sights conjures up a skyline known the world over as the Windy City. Welcome to Chicago! And there's no better guidebook to the city than W is for Windy City: A Chicago Alphabet. Following the alphabet, the city's character and familiar landmarks are fully captured in poem and expository text. A is for Art Institute or Adler Planetarium. And if we want a "triple A," we'll add the Shedd Aquarium. Young readers can marvel at the treasures on display at the renowned Art Institute, go window shopping along Michigan Avenue's mile-long Magnificent Mile, or take in an afternoon game at Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubs. W is for Windy City brings this famous city to life.A faculty member in the Department of Education at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, Dr. Steven L. Layne is a respected literacy consultant and keynote speaker, working with educators and children at schools and conferences throughout the world. With more than 20 years as an educator, Deborah Dover Layne has worked at elementary and middle school levels and has been a reading specialist. Currently, she is an elementary principal in Elgin. The Laynes live in St. Charles, Illinois. Rhode Island School of Design graduate Michael Hays teaches illustration and drawing at Columbia College and lives in Oak Park, Illinois. Judy MacDonald and Michael started Painted Pony Studio in Chicago several years ago, each of them bringing their own unique style to the drawing table while illustrating books and creating art for children.

Objects are painted on urban walls representing each letter of the alphabet.

From baseball to fireworks, delis to a real live castle, the city of Toronto is full of surprises and delights. Artist Allan Moak explores the city he loves, recording the sights that appeal to children and to the child in him. In this lively book, children crawl through the Henry Moore sculpture in front of the art gallery, shop in the market neighborhood, take a ride on the island ferry, and paint murals at the zoo. Best of all, Moak encourages youngsters to appreciate the places they call home.

The alphabet as seen in city scapes.