700s: Sticks, Stones, and Steel: Series Nonfiction on Super Structures

Architecture of the past, from ancient and mysterious ruins to the landmarks that helped form this country, captures the imaginations of students. Studying these structures not only helps them learn about how buildings of yore were made, but also about the people who created them. From national monuments to cities and ruins that archaeologists are still hoping to explain, the subjects of these books offer a window into the past by looking at what earlier people built and left behind.

CLEMENTS, Gillian. Egyptian Pyramid. charts. ISBN 978-1-59771-143-2. LC 2008004576.
––––. Indus Valley City. chart. ISBN 978-1-59771-144-9. LC 2008004577.
––––. Medieval Castle. ISBN 978-1-59771-145-6. LC 2008004578. 
––––. Roman Villa. ISBN 978-1-59771-146-3. LC 2008004579. 
––––. Tudor Theater. ISBN 978-1-59771-147-0. LC 2008004580. 
ea vol: 32p. (Building History Series). diags. illus. maps. chron. glossary. index. CIP. Sea-to-Sea. 2009. PLB $27.10.
Gr 3-5–These books provide guided tours through several eras of architecture, offering cultural context as well as clear discussions of the building process. Pyramid focuses on the making of Pharaoh Khufu’s tomb while also providing an overview of how ancient Egyptians treated their dead, where the soul was believed to go, and how archaeologists have uncovered information about the civilization. The other titles are more general, describing the construction of similar cities, houses, theaters, and castles rather than focusing on a single example. There is no direct flow to the narratives; instead, each spread covers a topic, and students follow text boxes around the cartoonlike illustrations to learn about individual steps of the construction process, the culture, or the archaeology involved. The illustrations feature figures who sometimes explain their roles using funny comments that appear in speech balloons. Each book’s time line includes recent discoveries.

RIGGS, Kate. Easter Island. ISBN 978-1-58341-710-2. LC 2007051901. 
––––. Egyptian Pyramids. ISBN 978-1-58341-707-2. LC 2007051891. 
––––. Great Wall of China. ISBN 978-1-58341-708-9. LC 2007051892. 
––––. Machu Picchu. ISBN 978-1-58341-709-6. LC 2007051893. 
––––. Stonehenge. ISBN 978-1-58341-711-9. LC 2007052039. 
––––. Taj Mahal. ISBN 978-1-58341-712-6. LC 2007052040. 
ea vol: 24p. (Places of Old Series). photos. further reading. glossary. index. CIP. Creative Education. 2009. PLB $24.25.
Gr 1-2–Clear texts describe ancient sites around the world. Each book offers advice for visiting the area and describes its climate. The images, so stunning in the “Now That’s Big” series by Riggs (see below), are less successful here. Pictures of tickets, an airplane, and a butterfly are fillers. These tangential illustrations detract from the more relevant color photos and illustrations of the sites being explored. Some generalizations may lead to misunderstandings; a caption in Taj Mahal reads “Indian cities are crowded with people and animals,” which is not true of all sections of all cities. In Stonehenge, there is no mention of the wooden henge that archaeologists have discovered as the monument’s precursor, and though it is briefly stated that people can no longer touch the stones, several of the photographs show crowds inside the circle.

RIGGS, Kate. Eiffel Tower. ISBN 978-1-58341-702-7. LC 2007052338. 
––––. Empire State Building. ISBN 978-1-58341-703-4. LC 2007052339. 
––––. Golden Gate Bridge. ISBN 978-1-58341-704-1. LC 2007052340. 
––––. Mount Rushmore. ISBN 978-1-58341-705-8. LC 2007052341. 
––––. Suez Canal. ISBN 978-1-58341-706-5. LC 2007052342. 
ea vol: 24p. (Now That’s Big! Series). map. photos. reprods. further reading. glossary. index. CIP. Creative Education. 2009. PLB $16.95.
K-Gr 2–These books are dominated by period photographs showing the early stages of the creation of mostly familiar modern architectural wonders. Spreads offer a few sentences of text opposite an appealing black-and-white or color photograph, with fast facts provided in sidebars next to the images. Each book opens with a map, placing students firmly in the geographic region of the landmark. Facing it is a description of the structure (“The Eiffel Tower is a tall tower….The tower looks like a giant arrow pointing to the sky”). The remaining pages describe events of the construction in chronological order, with important dates placed as watermarks above or below the text. Each book also offers recommendations about when to visit the location described, discussing the weather visitors might experience at certain times of year. The picture-book crowd may enjoy these as read-aloud titles, and independent readers will find enough for reports.

ALDRIDGE, Rebecca. The Hoover Dam. 120p. ISBN 978-1-60413-069-0. LC 2008025545.
KUPPERBERG, Paul. The Alaska Highway. 120p. May ISBN 978-1-60413-074-4. LC 2008025547.
MURPHY, John. The Eisenhower Interstate System. 144p. ISBN 978-1-60413-067-6. LC 2008025544. 
––––. The Telephone: Wiring America. 136p. Apr. ISBN 978-1-60413-068-3. LC 2008025546.
PRENTZAS, G.S. The Brooklyn Bridge. 120p. Apr. ISBN 978-1-60413-073-7. LC 2008025543.
REIS, Ronald A. The Empire State Building. 144p. ISBN 978-1-60413-045-4. LC 2008025549. 
––––. The New York City Subway System. 136p. May ISBN 978-1-60413-046-1. LC 2008025550.
SLAVICEK, Louise Chipley. New York City’s Central Park. 120p. ISBN 978-1-60413-044-7. LC 2008025548. 
ea vol: (Building America Then and Now Series). illus. maps. photos. reprods. bibliog. chron. further reading. glossary. index. Web sites. CIP. Chelsea House. 2009. Tr $35.
Gr 6-9–These books feature a number of large construction projects that have contributed to forming the American landscape. Somewhat New York-centric, with four of the eight titles focusing on that city’s infrastructure, the series provides a picture of late-19th- and early-20th-century developments. Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, and Central Park discuss the large-scale accomplishments of the creators of those monumental and trend-setting works, while Telephone, Interstate, and Subway System focus on transportation and telecommunications systems that have had a huge impact on life today. Each book features tangential discussions of related issues, such as the treatment of African-American soldiers during the construction of the Alaska Highway, and includes short sidebars about similar, modern-day projects. A long first chapter in Hoover Dam provides a meandering history of dams and introduces terms in the main text before they are defined. Empire State Building has many clever vignettes that are related, but only barely; a story about the “Mohawk Sky Boys” offers a little diversity, but never comes into play again in the main narrative. Brooklyn Bridge, on the other hand, offers a long history of the settlement of New York City, but because much of the discussion relates to the need for the bridge, the lengthy explanation never feels off topic. The other titles are tightly focused, offering a detailed picture of the construction of the projects by concentrating on the people who were involved.

“Places of Old” and “Now That’s Big” offer beginning knowledge of monuments that even young students will recognize. “Now That’s Big” is by far the most successful of the two. It includes eye-catching images that will appeal not only to budding architects but also to picture-book readers who are ready for slightly more challenging material. Among older elementary students, the layout of “Building History” will attract browsers and be useful for reports. Middle schoolers will find plenty of history in “Building America,” and the page length and frequent illustrations in these books make them attractive choices for reading assignments.