With just more than a week left before Old Saint Nick makes his midnight run, you may still be scrambling to find a gift for that person you will see Christmas morning or for whom you have to send something out of town. For the person or family you don't know what to give, or even for the person you are already giving something to, there may be no better gift this year than “In Search of Norman Rockwell's America” by Kevin Rivoli (Simon and Shuster $24.99) - what makes it an even better gift is its very local flavor.

Rivoli, who used to work for The Citizen and has gone on to assignments with the Democrat and Chronicle and The Associated Press, displayed many of his best works in the 1990s in The Citizen. A great photographer with a keen eye, he was able to catch those “simple moments” that were, for him, and others, strangely reminiscent of the work of one of America's greatest artists - Norman Rockwell.

For decades, critics have charged that Rockwell's pieces, that graced the covers of the “Saturday Evening Post” and magazines such as “Colliers” and “Look,” did not really represent the real America. They were a painter's vision of what he saw, not the dirty and gritty reality of what was. As usual, the popular critics are wrong and photographer Rivoli proves it in this 128-page glossy book which faces off his photos with Rockwell's paintings and art. Interspersed are thoughts and quotes from the likes of Chrysler's former Chairman Lee Iacocca, literacy advocate and singer Dolly Parton and NBC's Brian Williams. If anyone was truly in search of Norman Rockwell's America, Rivoli has it here.

You see, what the critics may not understand is that there is an America that still exists beyond the Beltway and urban metropolises. It exists in places like Stockbridge, Mass., where Rockwell painted for most of his life and the Finger Lakes where Rivoli has pointed and clicked. “Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. I am a storyteller,” Rockwell said. Rivoli does the same with his black and white images.

Next year many of Rockwell's original pieces will be on display, as in the book, set against Rivoli's parade of barbers, children, scouts, seniors, soldiers and weddings in a traveling exhibit that starts in Florida and, hopefully, comes back to central New York in 2010. Also, starting last month, Rivoli will regularly have his pieces in the Saturday Evening Post for those to see his newer works.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com