bookpagedev

FictionWomen's Fiction

Following the threads

Review by bookpagedev

In the world of knitting, there is a category of projects known as UFOs: Unfinished Objects. Everybody has them the knitting that is hidden away because it was too hard, too boring or too ugly to finish. First-time author Anne Bartlett, clearly a knitter, knows all about UFOs, and in this crisp, slim novel she introduces us to two women whose unresolved business of life threatens to overwhelm them.

Sandra and Martha meet on a city street where they both stop to help a fallen man. In this chance encounter, the two women begin a relationship that Bartlett renders in a totally unsentimental way. They could not be more different: Sandra is a buttoned-up academic, grief-stricken and furious at the recent death of her husband. Martha looks for all the world like a frumpy, wandering bag lady. After a few timid meetings, Sandra discovers that Martha is a ferocious, brilliant knitter, so she asks Martha to help her knit a group of vintage patterns for a textile exhibit she is mounting.

It is not easy to write about knitting without slipping into mawkishness. What is most admirable about this novel is the way Bartlett refuses to let Sandra and Martha become instant bosom buddies simply because they both love textiles. The fragility of their relationship it can’t really be called a friendship is plausible because it isn’t perfect. That texture, that imperfection, is what makes Bartlett’s novel so compelling. Knitting is for anyone who has enjoyed Carol Shields or the brittle Anita Brookner. There is a lot in this book for anyone who ponders the big questions of life: the nature of friendship, the need for meaningful work, the comfort of sharing grief. But let’s face it any knitter will be turning the pages for the true drama of this book: what is the elaborate white project Martha keeps working on? Will it become a UFO, too? Ann Shayne writes about knitting with her friend Kay Gardiner at www.masondixonknitting.com. Their book, Mason-Dixon Knitting, will be published next spring.

In the world of knitting, there is a category of projects known as UFOs: Unfinished Objects. Everybody has them the knitting that is hidden away because it was too hard, too boring or too ugly to finish. First-time author Anne Bartlett, clearly a knitter, knows…
FictionHistorical Fiction

Illuminating sequel mingles fact, fiction

Review by bookpagedev

With The Mercy Seller, Tennessee author Brenda Rickman Vantrease continues the story of some of the characters from her highly acclaimed debut The Illuminator, yet one need not have read the first novel to be drawn into the intrigue of this 15th-century drama.

The story picks up in Prague, where scribe Anna works with her grandfather Finn, the Illuminator. As the Catholic Church attempts to quell revolt, Anna heads across Europe in search of Sir John Oldcastle to fulfill her grandfather’s dying wish. She makes her way to Kent, England, with an integral stop in Rheims. There, she is befriended by Gabriel, a monk in disguise. Rather than sell the pardons that are his stock in trade, he has been pressed into service as a spy by the Archbishop of Canterbury to ferret out details of a heretic conspiracy. Gabriel, disguised as cloth merchant VanCleve, steals Anna’s heart. Details would spoil the story, but suffice it to say that Anna makes some decisions that bode ill for her along the way. The history of the period makes a stunning backdrop for this romantic adventure, which features a noblewoman-turned-abbess, more than one castle, a king who would rather not prosecute his friend, and scriptoriums that serve an underground religious movement. Sir John Oldcastle and his wife Joan are real-life historical figures whose story has been told in theater at least once.

Vantrease’s characters are richly portrayed, and readers will certainly root for them. Even Gabriel is realistically drawn as a good-hearted man, albeit a bit misguided. By turns exotic, mystical, regal and romantic, the story surges forward to a satisfying end. Anyone with an interest in European or Church history, religious movements or book arts will find this novel addicting. Linda White writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.

With The Mercy Seller, Tennessee author Brenda Rickman Vantrease continues the story of some of the characters from her highly acclaimed debut The Illuminator, yet one need not have read the first novel to be drawn into the intrigue of this 15th-century drama.

…
FictionWomen's Fiction

The unbreakable bond between sisters

Review by bookpagedev

Florida author Kristy Kiernan’s stunning debut explores the lives of two sisters who were very close as children but drifted apart as they moved into adulthood. Estella and Connie Sykes grew up in a beachside home on an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida. When Estella was a preteen, her father discovered that she had extraordinary ability in mathematics, and she was labeled a genius. At the age of 12, Estella enrolled in college, and the close bond that she and Connie shared gradually eroded. Estella became known as the smart sister, and Connie relied on her beauty to garner attention.

Years later, both women are in their 40s, living disparate lives. Estella is an Atlanta math teacher, and Connie lives in Florida with her husband, Luke, and two sons, Gib and Carson. When their mother asks them to help close up the island home, asserting that she wishes to sell it, the two estranged sisters are reunited for the first time in years. As Estella and Connie travel together to their childhood home, they struggle with the uncomfortable silences between them. But once in Florida, both sisters see the beauty of the island, even as they recall the difficult moments of their youth. In a remarkably poetic chain of events, Estella and Connie share with one another secrets about their present-day lives even as they reveal hidden truths about their pasts, and the guilt and misunderstandings that have divided them. Connie and Estella’s poignant journey back toward the friendship of their youth will resonate with readers. Catching Genius is simply mesmerizing, not only because it expertly captures the unbreakable bond between sisters. The novel also explores the many facets of very real characters, breathing life into the seamlessly plotted storyline. This author’s first novel is a must-read for women’s fiction fans of all ages.

Sheri Melnick writes from Enola, Pennsylvania.

Florida author Kristy Kiernan's stunning debut explores the lives of two sisters who were very close as children but drifted apart as they moved into adulthood. Estella and Connie Sykes grew up in a beachside home on an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida.…
History

Recalling the year America went to war

Review by bookpagedev

For the United States, 1942 was both the first full year of active warfare in World War II, and the most crucial. Even with war raging in Europe and Japan savagely expanding its grip on Asia, the United States was woefully ill prepared. Its far-flung Pacific territories were inadequately defended and poorly supplied; its forces were vastly outnumbered, and counted far too many newly trained recruits. Even with the onrush of volunteers after Pearl Harbor, the Army was mostly a number on paper the Volunteers had no training, no experience and no equipment. Against the veteran forces of Japan and Germany, America offered novice troops trained with broomsticks instead of rifles.

Winston Groom’s 1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls gives a fascinating account of a nation turning from na•vetŽ and isolationism to a deep commitment to defeating foreign tyranny. Although the war in Europe does come into Groom’s narrative, he largely focuses on the American experience, which for most of 1942 centered on events in the Pacific. Groom follows the first year of the war, from the initial attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, through the losses of Wake Island, the Philippines and Corregidor, to the critical turning points of Midway and Guadalcanal.

Groom’s book is never dry nor dull; he keeps the action and emotion going strong. Each chapter leaves you wanting to read the next. I frequently found myself wondering “What’s going to happen?” even though I already knew. Groom achieves this effect both through his attention to action and his ability to present the story of the war on very personal levels. He includes anecdotes from soldiers and civilians of the time, telling the stories of many true heroes, some of which read like Hollywood movie plots (like the nightclub singer in Manila who ran her own spy network under the noses of her Japanese military clientele). The result is a page-turner that leaves you with humble gratitude for the men and women of the day. Groom helps us see again that 1942 is not only a year worth reading about, but worth remembering.

For the United States, 1942 was both the first full year of active warfare in World War II, and the most crucial. Even with war raging in Europe and Japan savagely expanding its grip on Asia, the United States was woefully ill prepared. Its…
NonfictionEducation

Leaving fewer children behind

Review by bookpagedev

Oral Lee Brown’s story of perseverance and triumph goes far beyond being a heart-warming narrative. It is a sobering and revealing work that reaffirms the shopworn axiom that one person can make a difference. The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First-Graders to College, co-written with journalist Caille Millner, spotlights Brown’s zeal to ensure that every student in an East Oakland, California, first-grade classroom has the chance for a college education and better future. A simple encounter in a corner store triggers this campaign when a young girl borrows a quarter and uses it to buy bread and bologna for her family.

Despite earning only $45,000 a year in 1987, Brown eventually sent 19 of the 23 students to college 12 years later. Having already overcome growing up impoverished in Mississippi during the segregation era, Brown is no stranger to beating the odds. She accomplishes her goal through a combination of strategic savings, savvy investments and juggling multiple jobs. She eventually creates the Oral Lee Brown Foundation and gathers donations from various people in the community. But Brown also endures pain and heartache while becoming a confidant, mentor and surrogate mother to the children known as “Brown’s babies.” The men in her life often prove unable or unwilling to understand or appreciate her efforts, and she’s sometimes disappointed or saddened by the children’s behavior. However, Brown also revels in their success, and she makes the same promise to three new classrooms of first-, fifth- and ninth-graders in 2001.

While not every child’s final story is a happy one, The Promise certainly offers a blueprint for people who see injustice and inequality, but feel powerless to challenge or change it. Oral Lee Brown is a true giant and heroic figure whose example reflects her unwillingness to accept the notion that environment and family background inevitably must cause some children to be overlooked and left behind. Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and several other publications.

Oral Lee Brown's story of perseverance and triumph goes far beyond being a heart-warming narrative. It is a sobering and revealing work that reaffirms the shopworn axiom that one person can make a difference. The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on her Extraordinary Pact…
Memoir

From the bottom up

Review by bookpagedev

Mary Childers’ large, fatherless family moved from one dilapidated apartment to another. Even when the family seemed to be trading up, moving out of a basement flat to a walk-up with a little more space and a smattering of trees nearby, the neighborhood’s true character slowly revealed itself, becoming just as depressing or dangerous as the last. “We’re the John the Baptists of Urban Decay, alerting our fellow man to what’s coming,” Childers writes in her memoir Welfare Brat. Having watched her sisters follow in her mother’s footsteps of choosing the wrong men and inevitably becoming pregnant, from an early age Childers devoted herself to breaking the cycle and becoming the first in her family to attend college.

Knowing that Childers succeeded, eventually earning a doctorate in English literature, doesn’t make her story any easier to read. It is a sad one, especially when she writes about ignoring her own birthday because there are too many other expenses among them the October birthdays of three of her siblings between September and Christmas. Or when she describes her sister’s stunned reaction to a surprise party and sums up the peculiarities of her family: “In some households, Where do presents come from?’ is a more perplexing question than Where do babies come from?’ ” Welfare Brat is more than a memoir of growing up with the weight of the world and the baggage of Childers’ family on her shoulders; it is also a portrait of New York in the 1960s and America during the era of the “Great Society.” Childers and her family move into neighborhoods as other whites are fleeing, and she touches on the friction between ethnic groups, between generations and between traditional and slightly more progressive Catholics. Despite the tension of the times, Childers feels fortunate to have come along when she did, writing: “I had the good luck to come of age when people in the United States approved of a war on poverty rather that what Herbert J. Gans calls the war against the poor.'” Rather than becoming dependent on the system, Childers used every opportunity to escape it.

Mary Childers' large, fatherless family moved from one dilapidated apartment to another. Even when the family seemed to be trading up, moving out of a basement flat to a walk-up with a little more space and a smattering of trees nearby, the neighborhood's true…
FictionWorld Fiction

Swept away

Review by bookpagedev

The framework of Amitav Ghosh’s lush new novel, The Hungry Tide, set in the richly storied Sundarbans off the easternmost coast of India, is not so much a love triangle as a love parallelogram. In one corner is Kanai Dutt, a cocky, self-satisfied Delhi businessman, who is returning to the rural island home of his aunt, where he spent a formative childhood summer. Kanai’s uncle Nirmal, who vanished years before during a political uprising on a nearby island, left Kanai a journal, which his aunt has just found. On the way there, Kanai meets Piya Roy, an American marine biologist of Indian descent, who has come to the area to study a rare species of dolphin that inhabits the tidal waters of the Sundarbans. When a disagreement with her official river guide lands Piya in the drink, she’s rescued by local fisherman Fokir. Fokir can’t read or write, but his knowledge of the river and its inhabitants, particularly the dolphins Piya seeks, is invaluable to her research. She also finds herself physically drawn to the stoic young man. Meanwhile, back at his aunt’s community hospital, Kanai is busy flirting with Fokir’s ambitious, education-hungry wife, Moyna, whose intellectual potential Kanai feels has been unjustly thwarted by her marriage to a simple fisherman. To further complicate matters, his uncle’s revelations about Kusum, Fokir’s mother and Kanai’s childhood friend, and the political uprising in which they were both involved sets a pattern that is later echoed by Kanai, Piya, Fokir and Moyna. But the cross-purpose love interests are merely a framework sketched across a richly layered background that interweaves the region’s volatile political climate, environmental issues, history and mythology. In this ever-shifting territory, where the hardscrabble residents eke out a living under the dual threat of man-eating tigers and devastating storms, nothing is certain. Everything Kanai and Piya think they know proves to be as unreliable as the ground itself, washed away by the changing tides.

The framework of Amitav Ghosh's lush new novel, The Hungry Tide, set in the richly storied Sundarbans off the easternmost coast of India, is not so much a love triangle as a love parallelogram. In one corner is Kanai Dutt, a cocky, self-satisfied Delhi…
FictionHistorical Fiction

A portrait of the critic

Review by bookpagedev

Those familiar with Iain Pears’ sweeping historical thrillers, An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio, can be forgiven if they finish his newest work, the sparse, economical The Portrait, and wonder aloud if this portrait-in-miniature was written by the same author. Rest assured, it was. While Pears’ latest may not share the grand scale of his two previous intricately erudite novels, it would be a mistake to confuse brevity with lack of depth. Like the most potent works of art, The Portrait contains multitudes within its slender frame.

Set during the twilight of the Edwardian era, this is the rendering of two friends and rivals during a long-postponed reckoning. William Nasmyth is England’s most renowned art critic; Henry MacAlpine, his one-time protŽgŽ, is a Scottish painter of declining artistic stature. Years ago, MacAlpine went into self-imposed exile on a lonely island off the northwest coast of France just as his star was ascending in the fashionable art circles of London. His hermit-like existence is transformed when his old mentor arrives on the island to sit for a portrait. What transpires dredges up painful and pleasurable memories for both men: memories of betrayal and youth spent in the heady days when the post-Impressionism of Matisse and CŽzanne revolutionized the art world. Yet like a painting that conceals as much as it reveals, MacAlpine’s attempt to capture Nasmyth’s essence in his portrait has implications that reach deeper than the canvas alone.

The slim novel is told entirely from MacAlpine’s perspective, and Pears drops nearly all quotation marks so that the prose is as direct as a brushstroke. And when a sinister tone enters MacAlpine’s narration, one can sense the raw, emotional impact that gathers like a violent storm coming over the sea. Richly evocative of its historical milieu, The Portrait is study in presentation and rising drama that rewards multiple viewings. And readings. Todd Keith is an editor at Portico Magazine in Birmingham, Alabama.

Those familiar with Iain Pears' sweeping historical thrillers, An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio, can be forgiven if they finish his newest work, the sparse, economical The Portrait, and wonder aloud if this portrait-in-miniature was written by the same author. Rest…
Children's & YA

A doggone rousing adventure

Review by bookpagedev

It isn’t every day that a press release about the political climate of a little-known Eastern European country alters a boy’s life, but for Timothy Malt, a middle-school boy whose lonely latch-key existence is comprised of school, computer games and limited conversation with his neglectful parents, a change is welcome.

When Tim discovers a small dog outside his London home, he knows he shouldn’t pet it or, frankly, even talk to it. Both his mother and father loathe dogs. Their primary concern in life is how to obtain more money. But Tim, won over by the animal’s beady black eyes and perky little tail, makes contact and in turn begins a quest for its owners. Tim’s search sends him across the continent in search of the Raffifis, the family of the former ambassador of Stanislavia. His adventure is more than he bargained for, however, as he faces an evil dictator, makes a daring escape by helicopter, liberates accused traitors from a high-security prison and sneaks over the border with newfound friends. With spy adventure novels gaining in popularity for intermediate readers, Joshua Doder has hit the mark with A Dog Called Grk. Short chapters and the staccato style of the author’s writing keep the plot moving at a rapid pace. The novel doesn’t shy away from portraying true evil, including brutal deaths, but it is balanced with humor and the undying bravery of its child characters.

Already a popular series in Great Britain, the adventures of Tim and Grk will give young American readers a good reason to sit, stay and curl up with an entertaining book.

Jennifer Robinson is a teacher in Baltimore, Maryland.

It isn't every day that a press release about the political climate of a little-known Eastern European country alters a boy's life, but for Timothy Malt, a middle-school boy whose lonely latch-key existence is comprised of school, computer games and limited conversation with his neglectful…
Fiction

A tale of two cities

Review by bookpagedev

Louis Benfield, Jr., formerly of Neely, North Carolina, is now living in New York City, and neither Louis nor the city will ever be the same again. Readers were first introduced to a much younger Louis in T.R Pearson’s A Short History of a Small Place. When this long-awaited sequel, Glad News of the Natural World, opens, Louis is grown up and on his own in NYC. His father back home in Neely has pulled some strings and gotten Louis a job with Meridian Life and Casualty. In no time, though, young Louis’ career as an executive trainee comes to ignominious end. Resourceful Louis, reluctant to tell folks back home about his urban failure, remains in the city and works as a glorified taxi driver for a Yemeni-owned car service, as a handyman for a Staten Island wise guy, and as a nearly invisible stage and screen actor. Throughout his bizarre careers, Louis the novel’s narrator chronicles his strange and hilarious encounters with personalities who are even more entertaining than the eccentrics back in Neely.

Louis finds, however, that he cannot really separate himself from his Southern hometown. Although eager to continue his curious metamorphosis into a New Yorker, Louis returns regularly to Neely for weddings and funerals. Through his visits sometimes actual and sometimes imagined Louis, as suggested by the novel’s title, undergoes a profound spiritual odyssey filled with humor, suffering and discovery. In his 10th novel, Pearson delivers a quirky view of the world in extraordinary ways: he deploys reinventions of meandering Proustian narration, serpentine Faulknerian sentences and sharp Swiftian satire. Readers who expect a simple tale of a good ol’ boy in the big city will instead be surprised by Pearson’s unique narrative style, chaotic plot structure and colorful characterizations. Though there are some imperfections in this uneven novel, readers nevertheless ought to enjoy Louis Benfield’s kaleidoscopic adventures. Tim Davis teaches literature at the University of West Florida.

Louis Benfield, Jr., formerly of Neely, North Carolina, is now living in New York City, and neither Louis nor the city will ever be the same again. Readers were first introduced to a much younger Louis in T.R Pearson's A Short History of a Small…
Memoir

A long, strange trip

Review by bookpagedev

Readers who pick up Goldie Hawn’s new memoir in search of a steamy Hollywood tell-all may be disappointed. Though the 59-year-old Hawn, a show-biz insider since the ’60s, doubtless has plenty of those types of tales, her introspective memoir, co-written with British journalist and author Wendy Holden, focuses more on Hawn’s lifelong journey to wisdom and self-fulfillment.

Each of us goes through transitions and transformations, Hawn writes in the preface to A Lotus Grows in the Mud. The important thing is that we acknowledge them and learn from them. That is the idea behind this book. Not to tell my life story, but to speak openly and from the heart. Expressed by any other star, this sentiment might be scoffed at, but coming from Goldie Hawn, one of America’s most personable and beloved performers, you can believe it’s genuine. Goldie Studlendgehawn was born on November 21, 1945, and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Her parents were both performers her mother ran a dance school, and her father played the violin. Hawn was an entertainer from an early age, and in Lotus she shares stories of her childhood, her days as a go-go dancer, her first taste of success on Laugh-In and her transition to Hollywood leading lady and brilliant comic actress. She also speaks openly about her two marriages (to Gus Trikonis and to Bill Hudson, father of her first two children, Oliver and Kate) and her relationship with longtime partner Kurt Russell. The two met on the set of the 1968 film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. Russell played a lead role, while Hawn had a bit part. When they met again on the set of the 1984 film Swing Shift, the two began a romantic relationship. They’ve been together ever since and had a son, Wyatt, in 1986, but they have not chosen to marry. As Hawn explained to Harper’s Bazaar in April, A marriage paper doesn’t do anything but sometimes close a door psychologically. I’ve always said, if I’m in a cage and you leave the door open, I’m going to fly in and fly out, but I’ll always come home. She and Russell divide their time among their homes in California, Aspen and Vancouver, where their son, Wyatt, plays hockey. Over the course of her career, Hawn has received many award nominations and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (for her performance in Cactus Flower). She and Russell run a successful production company, Cosmic Entertainment. But as she reveals in her memoir, perhaps her favorite role is that of mother to her children. She’s also a grandmother in 2004 her daughter Kate Hudson had a son, Ryder, with her husband, former Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson. Being a grandmother is amazing, Hawn told the San Francisco Chronicle soon after Ryder’s birth. It brings unbelivable joy. Joy comes easily to Hawn, who says the ability to choose happiness is in my DNA. Though she continues to grow spiritually and intellectually, the actress believes that fundamentally, she hasn’t changed much since her Laugh-In days. I’ve grown up, Hawn says. I’ve gone through the trials and tribulations of life. I’ve lost my parents since then. I’ve had two failed marriages. Yet the essence of that person I was has remained. Fans will enjoy getting to know that person in this frank, reflective memoir.

Readers who pick up Goldie Hawn's new memoir in search of a steamy Hollywood tell-all may be disappointed. Though the 59-year-old Hawn, a show-biz insider since the '60s, doubtless has plenty of those types of tales, her introspective memoir, co-written with British journalist and author…
Children's & YA

Confessions of an 11-year-old romantic

Review by bookpagedev

The summer of 1964 is in full force in Falls of Rough, Kentucky. So is 11-year-old Sassy Thompkin’s desire to know all about love, especially the head-over-heels kind always mentioned in her Love Confessions magazines. Not just any boyfriend will do. After her older, prettier, flirtatious sister, Lula, laughs at her first kiss during a game of Spin the Bottle (at church camp, of all places), Sassy vows to make Boon, the teen with a Hollywood smile and bad-boy reputation, fall in love with her. In Runaround, Helen Hemphill’s realistic portrayal of adolescent romance, Sassy soon learns that love is more complicated than a magazine questionnaire.

Sassy can’t tell if writing love notes to Boon, buying the poor boy and his family groceries when the local storeowner refuses them credit, and other acts of kindness are winning him over. She tries asking advice from her longtime caregiver, Miss Dallas; her widowed, tobacco-farmer Daddy; and her cantankerous, more experienced sister, but they are either too evasive, too busy or too taunting to be much help. Sassy believes that the key to figuring out love may lie in knowing about the relationship between her father and the cancer-stricken mother who left home when Sassy was only a baby, but this topic always seems off-limits too. In a bittersweet ending, Sassy realizes that with her family, she already knows about real-life love.

The author of Long Gone Daddy (2006), Hemphill creates another Southern storytelling gem with attention to regional voice and vivid period details, from cherry Cokes to the sisters’ ongoing battle over their musical favorites: the Beatles vs. Elvis. The author also manages to capture the immediacy of tween emotions, as Sassy vacillates between acting grown-up and feeling frustrated. Through it all, readers will want to give Sassy a big ol’ hug. Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

The summer of 1964 is in full force in Falls of Rough, Kentucky. So is 11-year-old Sassy Thompkin's desire to know all about love, especially the head-over-heels kind always mentioned in her Love Confessions magazines. Not just any boyfriend will do. After her older, prettier,…
Children's & YA

Modern megaliths reach for the sky

Review by bookpagedev

Chicago is famous for many things: the Cubs, Bears &andamp; Bulls, hot dogs, the ice cream cone, the Ferris wheel, but strangely, not its skyscrapers. Oh, it has them all right, lots of them, with the John Hancock and Sears towers anchoring both ends of the downtown loop, but the truth is that Chicago is truly the second city when it comes to skylines New York City is the top dog, and is unlikely to give up that title anytime soon, since it is home to the Chrysler Building, the UN, the Empire State Building and the soon-to-be-built replacement for the World Trade Center. Yet, in fact, Chicago was the birthplace of the skyscraper, with the construction of the Home Insurance Building in 1885, which stood an amazing 11 stories tall! This is just the beginning of Lynn Curlee’s delightful new book for young readers, Skyscraper, a richly illustrated and well researched look at the monumental megaliths of modern society.

While written for your average fifth-grader, the book will appeal to readers of all ages; it doesn’t talk down to young readers, instead providing enough information in its brief span to qualify as a crash course on the history of tall buildings. You’ll learn the difference between art and architecture, and discover when they are one and the same. From the jumping-off point of the first steel-framed structure, Curlee explains how that building, along with the simultaneous development of other technologies (elevators, electric lights and telephones) pushed architects and builders to reach ever higher.

As a veteran children’s book author, with works on the Statue of Liberty, baseball parks, the Parthenon and many others to his credit, Curlee knows how to engage the never-ending curiosity of children. As an art historian, he is adept at explaining the various styles and schools of design for these increasingly massive buildings, and as an artist he is equally adept at illustrating them. Moreover, his illustrations qualify as fine art themselves, from a portrait of famous photographer Margaret Bourke-White to an iconic rendering of the Empire State Building taken from one of its famous elevator doors. You’ll be tempted to take out pages and frame them just don’t let your kids catch you. Better yet, get a copy of Skyscraper for yourself.

Chicago is famous for many things: the Cubs, Bears &andamp; Bulls, hot dogs, the ice cream cone, the Ferris wheel, but strangely, not its skyscrapers. Oh, it has them all right, lots of them, with the John Hancock and Sears towers anchoring both ends of…

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