Macaulay, David Books - Page 2

Mosque

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very interesting and well done 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The first book by David Macaulay that I ever read was Cathedral, so that's the benchmark by which I measure his other books. Mosque is based on the same premise as that book (i.e. the construction of a great structure for religious worship), but adds the new element of color for the first time and is obviously not set in Medieval Europe. And while I did enjoy the color prints, and the book is well done, overall I felt like it fell a bit short of Cathedral because the drawings lacked the detail found in that book. Mosque seems to present a bigger picture rather than focusing on the intricate details that made Cathedral so interesting to me. You'll notice that I still gave Mosque four stars, so I'm not unhappy with it at all. But I didn't think it quite lived up to the high standards set by Cathedral, which is the only reason I shorted it one star. I would add that my four-and-a-half-year-old son, who absolutely loves all things related to construction, really enjoyed this book becuase of its illustrations and the interesting subject matter, but also becuase I summarized the narrative rather than reading it word for word. I did that because it is written at a higher reading level than Cathedral. That may or may not suit your needs depending on your situation, but for younger kids this would be a long slog if you read every word to them.

Editorial Review:

Following in the tradition he established with Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction and in the many books he has published in the thirty years since, David Macaulay provides explanations of the how and the why in a way that is both accessible and entertaining. His work has earned numerous accolades, including a Caldecott Medal, two Caldecott Honors, and a MacArthur Grant, and many fans around the globe. With Mosque, he turns his talents toward the magnificent structures of the Ottoman Empire.

Mill

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

To Whole Cloth 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This is an important book. Written for children, it can be used just as effectively by adults to comprehend the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the United States. Learn and see how men tamed our rivers and how men, women and children were swallowed up in these great monuments to progress.

The illustrations are remakable. David Macaulay deftly describes and illustrates how the technology that made America a world industrial power came to the young new country and how American ingenuity improved it and made the nation into a world class economic juggernaut.

The author is a superb story teller, and anyone who would like to visualize the nature of mills and to understand the profound impact of this technology on our country should read it.

I highly recommend this great children's book to everyone.

Epic and Educational 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Macaulay is an illustrator, architect, engineer, historian, economist, anthropologist and story-teller. He puts all of this knowledge and skill into Mill. It is a totally one-of-a-kind book that does not easily fall under any traditional category. It is often labeled as a "kids' book" because it has pictures and is relatively short. But very little of the educational content would be considered common knowledge for adults. It reads like a history text-book, a technical manual, and a novel all in one.

It is an epic, multi-generational story of a fictional New England town that is born out of the textile boom of the Industrial Revolution. You follow the cotton-milling and cloth-weaving operations of this town and its mills as they grow and expand, incorporate new technology, and endure the tides of fortune. Along the way, you get to learn all the details of the planning, the machinery, the construction, read excerpts from the characters' journals and watch the town slowly grow and change over time. In the end, this short book feels like a monumental journey and it will leave you not only satisfied but smarter too.

I've read most of Macaulay's books and this is probably the best.

Editorial Review:

The mills at Wicksbridge are imaginary, but their planning, construction, and operation are quite typical of mills developed in New England throughout the nineteenth century.

Unbuilding (Sandpiper)

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

There are Better Choices 3 out of 5 stars.
37 of 49 people found this review helpful.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but somewhere between conception and execution Unbuilding unraveled. The drawings are, without a doubt, spectacular. The story is clever, but the love of the subject matter is missing. The story, at its most basic, is about the disassembly of the Empire State Building. The details of its existence, however, are nowhere to be found. There is, for example, no information on how many tons of steel were used; how many thousands of rivets. Missing too, are any explanations of mechanical systems such as how water was pumped to bathrooms one thousand feet off the ground, or how the elevators safely and efficiently carried their passengers up 85 stories.

My suspicion is that Unbuilding's weakness lies at its foundation. Organized disassembly just isn't as interesting as a construction project. To be fair to Mr. Macaulay, it's not a bad book. Certainly, if this were the first of his work that you had seen, you would be suitably impressed. But in the context of his efforts prior to and after this one, it fails to captivate. My advice is that, if you are collecting the series, you'll most certainly want Unbuilding. If, however, you are new to Macaulay's work, Castle, Cathedral, City and Mill are significantly better choices.

Editorial Review:

This fictional account of the dismantling and removal of the Empire State Building describes the structure of a skyscraper and explains how such an edifice would be demolished.

Ship

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

History, for the kids. 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

My sister's boyfriend picked this book up at a garage sale and happened to leave it lying around. I was drawn to the cover art and once I started flipping through the pages, I couldn't put it down. It's not exactly a literary page-turner, though the story is kind of interesting - consisting mostly of a diary that was discovered in the early 1990's that contained a man's account of his experiences building a ship in Seville, Spain in 1504. But the illustrations, especially in the second half of the book, are of an incredibly high caliber. I was highly impressed with Mr. Macaulay's abilities and look forward to collecting the rest of his books if they, too, include such interesting painted pages.

Editorial Review:

In Ship we join a group of underwater archaeologists as they search for a long-lost caravel in the reefs of the Caribbean Sea. A combination of drawings, maps, and diagrams details the ship's recovery, and as clues to the past are pieced together, a story emerges - of the triumphant birth of the ship Magdalena from Spain, and its tragic voyage to a far-away continent.

Carpentry for Children

Lester R. Walker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"A good book" by David Stull, age 14 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 46 people found this review helpful.

Carpentry for Children, by Les Walker is an incredible book with enlightening and challenging projects that will delight children for hours upon hours

A good second book 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book offers projects for a range of skill levels, from simple toys on up through a lemonade stand cut from a whole sheet of plywood. Different projects suit different levels of skill and strength - cutting some of those pieces with a hand saw will take a while.

There's a lot to like here. It starts with an introduction to basic hand tools, including short lessons on using each one. The list includes a brace and bit, the classic hand drill (not the egg-beater kind). I agree completely with this 1985 book in recommending that to a kid but, since this book came out, it verges on extinction as cordless drills encroach on its former habitat.

This book distinguishes itself in offering kids larger-scale projects than other books, starting with the very first: the workbench on which the rest will be made. Perhaps the floating toys represent the range best. A little wooden tugboat, suitable as a bathtub toy, lies at the small end of the scale. At the other end, a real raft (holds one or two kids) requires several five-foot logs, eight inches in diameter. Other projects, including a few with girl appeal, lie between those extremes.

Walker makes sure there's fun in the finished work, too, not just in the making. An easel, a puppet theater, and a gravity race car all promise years of fun (and maybe a few good healthy bruises). Although the scale of some projects might be a bit much for smaller carpenters and living spaces, the range offers something for many skill levels, and offers the beginner a lot to look forward to. Not every project will work for every kid, but it looks like a lot of fun.

-- wiredweird

Editorial Review:

A step-by-step guide to carrying out such carpentry projects as a birdhouse, candle chandelier, doll cradle, puppet theater, and coaster car.

Angelo

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Another Caldecott contender from Macaulay 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Each day at work I have to read the new picturebooks that have been proccessed. I dislike few of them. I enjoy most of them. I love very few of them...especially on first perusal. "Angelo" is one of the very few.

It's the story of the unlikely friendship between a master plasterer (Angelo) and a pigeon he dubs Sylvia. He finds her wounded on the ledge of a building he is restoring & takes her in despite his negative opinions of birds. (The pigeon hospital bed he rigs up for her is wonderful). She flies off after convalescing...only to return when he needs companionship to see him to the end of his last great job. In thanks, he creates a tribute to her...a tribute only he could create & one only a pigeon could appreciate.

The story is heartwarming, but the pictures are silly, cinematic, and inspired. This is a treat to read (for young and old) and it is my pick (so far) for Caldecott 2002...

Editorial Review:

High above the rooftops of Rome, Angelo begins his work restoring the façade of a once glorious church. There, among the sticks and feathers, he discovers a wounded bird. Angelo becomes the bird's reluctant savior. As the church nears completion, Angelo begins to worry about the future of his avian friend. "What will become of you? Where will you go . . . where will you . . . live?" he asks her. Through his artistry as a master craftsman he answers the questions for his humble friend and assures that he, himself will not be forgotten.

The Way Things Work

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

great idea but very poor execution 1 out of 5 stars.
28 of 35 people found this review helpful.

it's a very poorly designed kit. parents have to do a LOT of it. Macaulay should have teamed up with LEGO to create his kit.

the cool thing is it has a MOTOR in there, and some plunger things with long plastic tubes to make a pneumatic lift arm. but the construction parts (including wheels) are basically all cardboard! if anything gets slightly bent or stepped on, the whole project is history. durability is nil.

the instructions suck: you cannot follow the numbered paragraphs and build it, you have to read through all the aside comments to do it properly, and the instructional photos are very poorly posed. if LEGO had done it (I'm thinking of the the Klutz press/LEGO teamwork for the Action Contraptions set) they would have broken down the steps accurately, and done photos that kids could follow.

you cannot even put the wheels on without major adult participation. the stickum provided doesn't adhere well to the parts it says to attach it to. "friction" is one of the concepts presented, yet friction of cardboard parts interferes with finished product operation.

If LEGO had participated, the parts would be durable, they would assemble easily, the finished products would work smoothly, a kid could put it together and self-explore the scientific concepts, and it would be brilliant.

The kit's ideas of the things to present (friction, pneumatics, simple machines, etc.) is EXCELLENT. there is very little else on the market that presents these concepts well in a building set. the narrative that explains the physics concepts is well written in simple, understandable terms. it is very cool that the kids get to read about something and build it. but I am sooooo disappointed that the building materials were so poorly designed.

it was a cool idea that was very poorly executed.

Editorial Review:

From levers to lasers, from cameras to computers, this 384-page volume is a remarkable overview of the machines and inventions that shape our lives, amusingly presented with a large dose of Macaulay's wit and personality.

Shortcut

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This "Shortcut" is cut into shorts 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Following up his success with the eclectic and Caldecott award winning, "Black and White", from 1990, author David Macaulay decided to write another multiple narrative infused picture book. If you've read "Black and White", you may remember how this kind of story works. Characters from different tales affect one another's lives and the reader has the joy of seeing how an action on the part of one person creates chaos or delight on the parts of others. The result is a meticulously crafted series of delicate vignettes, perfectly suited for the child reader. This is basically the equivalent of picture book jazz. And it works.

There are eight major players in this tale (two of whom are non-human) and Macaulay has presented a helpful chart of each and every one at the beginning of the book. When it begins, an older gentleman named Albert is going with his horse June to the town for market day. On the way there, and unbeknownst to him, he inadvertently affects every other character's life. Because of Albert, Professor Tweet loses control of his hot air balloon and unwittingly saves Clarinda's escaped cockatoo. Because of June, Patty must search for her pet pig Pearl. Then there are the stories of the Sybil (a dead ringer for the little old lady from Pasadena) and Bob, the unwitting deep sea diver.

Even as I looked through the pictures a third and fourth time, I still was able to locate clever little thoughts and details that I hadn't noticed before. The narrative in this story jumps between each character rapidly, sometimes double backing to clarify a situation or storyline. Probably this book will do best with those kids that are endowed with a little bit of patience. I can see this story striking some as being incredibly frustrating. After all, if you don't realize that each story is affected by every other story, a first read through is going to strike the child reader as disjointed and awkward. If they manage to grab ahold of the tale and get into it, however, they'll be enjoying a whole new kind of picture book. This is the kind of book that will prepare its younger readers for future books with eclectic narratives. For the kid that's still reading picture books but has a mind that likes clever details and stories, this might just be the perfect choice.

Editorial Review:

Albert and his trusty mare, June, set off early on market day to sell their melons in town, thus beginning a mysterious chain of events in a thought-provoking journey that ex-poses ordinary life as an intricate sequence of action and reaction.

Great Moments in Architecture

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

No one should bother with this book 1 out of 5 stars.
16 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I waited with great expectation for "Great Moments in Architecture" to arrive, hoping it would be in the style of the other highly successful books by David MacCaulay on Pyramids, ships, etc. These other books provide something for all ages: detailed drawings on how things work for children and sophisticated studies of engineering and architecture for adults. Unfortunately, Great Moments is a satirical look at great objects of aechitecture. The cover shows L'Arc de Triumph upside down and called Arc de Defeat. The remainder of the book only gets worse. The problem is the work is totally confusing for children who are trying to learn the true nature of the world while being boringly crude for adults. However, I suppose if you would like an expensive and not funny Architectural Far Side, maybe this would provide some brief enjoyment

Editorial Review:

A wonderous portfolio that has to be seen to be savored-or even believed for that matter. Here are the plans for the Tower of Pisa-on a skewed drafting table, the Eiffel Tower tipped over across from the Seine, the ruins of a McDonald's stand following some future Vesuvius, the disastrous meeting of the Great and Lesser Walls of China, and many other gems.

Baaa

David Macaulay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gets the Mind Going 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The best thing about this book is that the author never explicitly explains what happened. I read it aloud to my 5th grade class as a prelude to a lesson on making inferences, and the students found it absorbing and challenging. Don't assume that it's for young children because it's a picture book: the story is really too dark and the themes too complex for most children under ten. Teachers could incorporate this book into language arts or social studies instruction for students from the 5th to the 12th grade. Don't miss out- read it!

Sheep evolve to a point of self destruction 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Borrowing from themes of George Orwell's Animal Farm in 1943 and the 1973 movie Soylent Green, David Macaulay's children's book Baaa draws parallels to these stories with demonstrations of matters of overpopulation, resource depletion, social hierarchies, and consumption by depicting sheep evolving to a point of self destruction. The post-apocalyptic storytelling evident in Baaa is reminiscent of Macaulay's earlier work titled "Motel of the Mysteries" in which twentieth century civilization as we know it has ceased to exist. The combination of intellectually savvy text with rich pen and ink drawings complement his analysis of societal ills while supporting a solid body of work.

Coincidentally, Baaa takes up where Motel of Mysteries left off as evident in the first passage of Mysteries. "In 1985 a cataclysmic coincidence of previously unknown proportion extinguished virtually all forms of life on the North American continent." The first line of Baaa reads "There is no record of when the last person disappeared." Perhaps as a continuation of his apocalypse, Macaulay populates his world with zealous sheep that end up emulating the horrors of human society. The conflicts and deterioration examined in Baaa, while not exactly uplifting, do impose a critical analysis of our social environment and collective behaviours. Macaulay is persistent with cautionary tales of potential futures in stories which should appeal to readers of all ages. The illustrations are smart yet playful and the text is very thought provoking. Baaa accomplishes Macaulay's social criticism with great ease proving that this book is a success.

Editorial Review:

After the last person has gone from the earth, sheep take over the world, make the same mistakes as humans, and eventually disappear as well.