Skyscraper

From School Library Journal Grade 4–8—Dramatic paintings and lucid prose highlight this excellent history of skyscrapers. Nearly every spread features a full page of text opposite an impressive acrylic illustration. Thus, a page turn reveals another striking construction as the text proceeds chronologically. Precise lines and deft coloring convey the elegance and grandeur of the buildings. Carefully varied composition reveals full views, key sections, or from-the-ground-up perspectives, helping readers grasp the essence of each construction. Clean, stylized renderings make each skyscraper clearly distinct from others shown, and the main elements of the different architectural styles are easy to identify. Curlee covers a lot of ground, from early multistory buildings in Chicago and New York to the latest ambitious plans for new record-breaking towers. He offers useful historical context and relates how architectural artistry and technology impacted skyscrapers through the decades. Well-chosen quotations, used as section headings and within the text, show diverse opinions, ideas, and reactions related to this sometimes-controversial field. When buildings are described without illustrations, the significant elements are still easy to follow through the words. The powerful effect of the full-color paintings is substantial, though, and works with the text to introduce the magnificence of skyscrapers in a way that readers will understand and remember.—