Reviews: (by author)

Jackson, Ellen. Illustrated by. Carol Heyer. Here Comes the Bride. Walker and Company, NY, 1998. 30 pages. $15.95 hardcover. ISBN 0802784682.

If your little girl has lately taken to draping a pillowcase over her head and pace down the front hall, holding an imaginary bouquet of flowers and humming "The Wedding March," this book may catch her attention. Or perhaps there is an older sister getting married, and you need a book to amuse the flower-girl-to-be while wedding plans are being made. This is an over-sized, fully illustrated, nonfiction book, full of information about interesting wedding customs from around the world and from different historical periods. It presents the bride as a person of importance, the center of all attention, the figure who "reminds everyone of love and the hope of happiness," and therefore allows the child reader to imagine herself in this pleasant situation.

There are, however, a few caveats. The first is what I consider an excessive amount of attention paid to the bride's appearance. Yes, I know. That is what little girls fantasize about - the white dress, the veil, the bouquet. But do we really want to give our daughters a book about one of the most important and beautiful days of a human being's life and tell those girls that "one of the first things an engaged woman does is select a special dress for her special day"? After a few introductory pages, this book moves into the first of five sections. Just to give you an idea: the first section is about the bride's dress, the second is entitled "Hair and Makeup," and we don't come to "Family and Friends" until the third section. (The groom receives little attention in the book; it's all the bride's show.) This emphasis on appearance is borne out in the art, which, while colorful and eye catching, is more successful at detailed portrayals of clothing than of the people who wear them.

My other concern is with the representations of race in this book. There is a praiseworthy impulse in the writing of this book to discuss traditions from around the world; it discusses customs among Syrians, Zulus, Koreans, Norwegians, Hopi. But the actual structure of the book is problematic. Each "chapter" begins with a full page illustration of an American bride and a facing page that describes modern American customs. Following pages give describe corresponding customs from around the world, with four or five cultures appearing on a double-page spread and "spot" pictures of brides from each culture. A sentence or two sums up the tradition, and the result is that only modern American customs receive much attention. Other cultures appear to be colorful, exotic deviations from the white-gowned, veiled American norm.

The book is likely to appeal to your wedding-obsessed little girl. You will simply have to decide how concerned you may be about some of the ways that the book represents weddings and the people who take part in them.

Recommended reading level: Age 8-11

Reviewed by Jamie Madden

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