ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: A Year in an American High School
2008
Dial (March 13, 2008)
Reading age : 12 - 15 years
Order:
ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: A Year in an American High School
For this book, I spent a year back at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago. Eight students were kind enough to let me follow them around with a notebook. We talked about drama with friends, upcoming parties, and college applications. These students’ stories made this book. The book is also a journal of the day-to-day life of one American high school, from homecoming to prom.
★ “The considerable strengths of the work come from Cooper’s genius for observation and confident refusal to dramatize what he finds.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A] wonder of a book.”
— Chicago Sun-Times
California: A Sketchbook
2000
Chronicle Books (March 1, 2000)
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CALIFORNIA: A SKETCHBOOK
After moving to California, I spent a year driving around the state. I went to some great places: a cattle ranch in Fresno, a Silicon Valley startup, Chez Panisse, the big waves of Mavericks, Sequoia and Joshua Tree. I met people like Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, and the LA rapper Funk Doobiest. California is beautiful and diverse, open for exploration. I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to convince people to let me see inside their studio, farm, or prison.
A day at yale
1998
Yale Bookstore (January 1, 1998)
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a Day at Yale
Since I went to Yale, writing this book was fun and easy. I came up with most of the ideas on a train ride to New Haven, remembering my college experiences: lunches in the dining hall, football teammates holding hands and playing tag, walking across campus late at night. I drew favorite places, like the roof of Jonathan Edwards, and sketched parts of Yale I had not known: an English seminar on Chaucer, students practicing capoeira, a fencing team practice. This book let me see college in a new light.
OFF THE ROAD: AN AMERICAN SKETCHBOOK
1996
Villard (December 3, 1996)
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OFF THE ROAD: AN AMERICAN SKETCHBOOK
After my first book came out, I quit my job at The New Yorker and drove around America in my parents’ ’89 Honda. I brought forty-eight maps, sixty sketchbooks, and a guidebook listing every Motel 6 in the country (though most nights I ended up sleeping in car). I went to some predictable places, let some unpredictable places come to me: sunbathers in Florida, the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont, firefighters in Idaho, the Chicago Board of Trade. I put 14,000 miles on the car. The trip took all summer. When I was done I put my experiences in this book.
“ Cooper chronicles his 50-day adventure with wit and whimsy.”
— USA Today
A year in New york
1995
City & Co (October 1, 1995)
Reading age : 5 - 8 years
Order:
a year in new york
After college I was a messenger at The New Yorker Magazine. When I was carrying manuscripts around the city, I also brought my sketchbook and drew galleries, taxis, markets — then came back late to the office. At night I sketched dance performances, or pick-up basketball games. I didn’t realize until halfway through the year that I was making a book. Everyone who comes to New York thinks they’re the first to discover it. In a way, that’s true, because they’re discovering it for themselves. This book is my journal of that year.