CUTTERS, CARVERS AND THE CATHEDRAL

The unfinished, monolithic Cathedral of Saint John the Divine looms over Morningside Heights, New York City, a massive work in progress that is currently at a standstill for lack of funding. Its story is one mixing the medieval and the modern: chisels and mallets shape its stone, computers plot the templates, dust swirls in the carving shed, vacuums clear the air. Ancona's crisp full- color photographs and blunt text introduce members of the most recent construction team, situating their talents in the building process (which begins in a quarry in Indiana): carver and quarrier, saw runner and mason, breaker and sander. But the narrative stumbles when addressing the feelings and philosophies of these artisans, e.g., ``I went to Italy and got my hands on a piece of marble and that was it.'' Sincere, no doubt, but it and other quotes are wooden, fugitive, and likely to create little resonance with readers. Intriguing questions remain, such as, how is the building of Saint John's similar to that of other cathedrals? Where have the cutters and carvers of the title gone now that the work is stopped? No one could have anticipated such an end (temporary though it may be) for the cathedral, but it has the effect of sucking the spirit right out of this book. (glossary) (Picture book/nonfiction. 6+)