Book Descriptions
for Built to Last by David Macaulay
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
This volume brings together newly revised text and illustrations for three of David Macaulay’s earlier works: Castle, Cathedral, and Mosque. All three are about fictional (rather than historically specific) buildings, but informative text and illustrations focus on the facts of how such buildings were constructed and, just as important, the human dimension of their creation. Each type of building served as a focal point for communities in medieval societies in Europe and the Muslim empire. The end result is a cohesive volume that takes readers through the middle ages, moving from west to east across the map of Europe as it offers insight into each society and fascinating, detailed information on how each structure was built. Revisions to the artwork add color and decrease the sometimes overwhelming visual detail of Castle and Cathedral , in addition to correcting mistakes in perspective or scale. Macaulay’s marvelous introduction discussing how he approached this revision project is a wonderful testament to the ongoing creative process and his own artistic integrity in a work that inspires appreciation for human achievement. (Age 10 and older)
CCBC Choices 2011. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2011. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
A nomad fashion's a home that’s meant to be built and rebuilt. A family tears down an old house and erects a new one in its place. Even the Eiffel Tower wasn’t meant to be anything more than temporary. As humans, we don’t always build things to endure the test of time. Built to Last brings together the award-winning author and artist David Macaulay’s creative, exacting thinking about buildings and designs that were crafted with a strength of structure and purpose that defy the everyday: Castle, Cathedral, and Mosque. This gorgeous volume includes newly researched information about each building and how it was built. And, for the first time ever, the Caldecott Honor–winning Castle and Cathedral appear in full color—with stunning new drawings that enrich the reader’s understanding of these structures, and capture intriguing new perspectives and details. Just as the buildings themselves were created to last, our interest in the structures themselves, the people who created them, and the purposes for which they were made endures as well. This impeccably researched volume—a necessary addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in architecture—celebrates this spirit of endurance and serves as a reminder that building well and leaving something of consequence behind, whether a building, a design, or an idea, is still of the utmost importance.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.