With its companion, this handsome, accessible book is particularly welcome, enhancing subject diversity with its refreshing...
This engaging, immediate and immersive book introduces the eight men behind eight towering, sky-scraping structures.
They range in age from Gustave Eiffel’s eponymous tower (1889) through William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building (1930) and Fazlur Rahman Khan’s John Hancock Center (1969) to Adrian Devaun Smith’s ingenious, wind-resistant Burj Khalifa (2010) in Dubai—now the world’s tallest building. The text in this French import is pared down to informative essentials, and it reflects a sophisticated, seamless, accessible design sensibility. Each architect (all men) is briefly introduced, and then his iconographic building is explored over successive pages. Cornille favors simple line drawings with just hints of color and plenty of white space. The book’s distinctive look echoes the effects achieved by AutoCAD—today’s computer-assisted architectural design tool of choice. The trim size also telegraphs and quickly signifies the subject. One of a two-book suite, it is taller than it is wide. Its companion, Who Built That? Modern Houses: An Introduction to Modern Houses and Their Architects, enjoys a landscape format. Happily, Houses also employs a similar approach to its taller cousin: 10 architecturally significant houses by 10 notable architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Courbusier, Rem Koolhaas, etc.).
With its companion, this handsome, accessible book is particularly welcome, enhancing subject diversity with its refreshing treatment, and all the more notable for its clean simplicity. (footnotes) (Informational picture book. 8-14)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61689-270-8
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Gleefully providing ammunition for snarky readers eager to second-guess misguided beliefs and commands of grown-ups, Rondina dishes up the straight poop on dozens of topics from the cleanliness of a dog’s mouth and the relationship (none) between French fries and acne to whether an earwig could really crawl into your ear and eat your brains. Since she cites no readily checkable sources—support for assertions comes in the form of quotations from experts in various fields, but there is no bibliography—it’s hard to tell how accurate some of her claims are—it would be nice to have a citation to the JAMA studies that debunk the sugar-hyperactivity connection, for instance—and too often she provides only an unsatisfying “You Decide” instead of a clear “True” or “False.” Still, it all makes painless reading equally suitable for casual dipping or reading straight through, and Sylvester’s pen-and-ink spot art adds further light notes to every page. An extensive closing catalog of familiar “Parentisms”—“I’m not running a taxi service,” “Because I said so, that’s why,” etc.—adds a chuckle-inducing lagniappe. (Informational ephemera. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55453-454-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
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