“I enjoyed both the stories and the photos. Very touching and well written.”

“This book dances with grace between memoir, prose, poem, and play. The photographs and vignettes shared on the pages paint a silhouette of two lives. The author-photographers share with us conversations that most fathers and sons wish they could have, but don’t. There is so much left off the page that the reader is almost forced to use the empty spaces to reflect on their own experience and relationships. The book is patient; it waits for you to finish thinking before inviting you to turn the page. The photos do not focus on objectively beautiful things. Instead, they focus on what many people wouldn’t notice. Moments, memories, and places that tell you: ‘I’m not lost.’ Child is Father to the Man demands a second reading, maybe a third, or more.”

“Great photos! Even heartbreaking, for me, in one case. The themes of regret and mortality resonated with this aging grandfather. I loved the strengthening of the father-son relationship.”

“Child is Father to the Man is a thoughtful narrative on father/son relationships over a lifetime. I had the voice of Morrie Schwartz in my mind when Alex implores his father to ‘do nothing’ but observe where you are and who you are with. People, and especially males talking face-to-face about feelings of love and loss is rare; and yet, this book expresses a dialog of life’s ups and downs, what is remembered, and how to finally let go. The full circle of life is beautifully expressed here as Alex’s fifth grade essay attests to, ending with: ‘Even though immortality sounds interesting, I wouldn’t want to live forever.’ “

“I finished the book in one sitting … There are two stories here, that is, two lives; a conversation between father and son about their intersecting and nonintersecting lives; and photos that illustrate and propel the story lines … beautiful and moving.”

“This book, both the writing and the photos, made me think; it provoked a range of feelings and reactions that I was forced to consider after I put the book down. The black and white photos have a certain quiet dignity, projecting exceptional beauty, crushing, evocative, unsettling, even hard to look at for too long. The stories interwoven with the photos, the fleshing out of the Ken/Alex relationship, is a tour through the very personal corridors of their lives and their eagerness and ability to share is both brave and valiant. The relationship they have forged is one part enviable and one part a model for others to follow, a model for all parents and children. ”

“I love reading a book that makes me reflect on the past life I have lived and look forward to the rest of it I have to experience. This one made me nostalgic, made me miss my family, made me think back on where I once lived, and how I was shaped by the interactions between my father and me. The pictures show how times have almost not changed, the last generation dealing with similar traumas to ours, and that is why I feel the title is so fitting for this book.”

“Child is Father to the Man is a book aware of its own making. Throughout its pages, Alex and Ken acknowledge their individual struggles to bring this project to life. Readers bear witness to the many triumphs that occur despite — or, perhaps, because of — the hardships endured by these authors. The photographs function as mirrors. They reflect memories, emotions, and various details of each author’s identity; they preserve time by their very nature. These qualities provide the authors with opportunities to interrogate themselves, come to realizations, and grow both as individuals and as a family unit.”