Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2003 Before the World Trade Center towers were quite complete, French acrobat and wire walker Philippe Petit had marked them for his next stunt. He had already traversed the span between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral; this was surely the next logical step. With permission out of the question, he and his friends snuck into the buildings in disguise and rigged the wire in the night, and Petit greeted the morning from a five-eighths-inch cable high above New York. Defying police attempts to talk him down, Petit walked into custody in his own sweet time, was taken to court, and was sentenced "to perform in the park for the children of the city." Although Gerstein takes no official position on the rectitude or sanity of Petit’s stunt, his line-and-watercolor pictures follow the adventure with gleeful approbation. The midnight setup is an exciting, mysterious antic in deepest blues and teals, the early morning stroll a stomach-churning marvel viewed in foldouts that capture Petit’s perspective from on high and the crowd’s perspective from the ground. Even the black-robed judge beams bemusement as he delivers the sentence from his lofty bench onto the now-grounded aerialist. There are bound to be adults who will shudder at the thought of celebrating with a picture-book audience an illegal, dangerous accomplishment, but Gerstein recognizes and taps into that pervasive love/hate regard for outlaws and daredevils and bad boys that has been observed to run through American culture. Any collection that includes Jesse James, Harry Houdini, and the Montgolfier brothers had better make room for Philippe Petit as well. - Copyright 2003 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 11/01/2003 K-Gr 6-As this story opens, French funambulist Philippe Petit is dancing across a tightrope tied between two trees to the delight of the passersby in Lower Manhattan. Gerstein places him in the middle of a balancing act, framed by the two unfinished World Trade Center towers when the idea hits: "He looked not at the towers, but at the space between them and thought, what a wonderful place to stretch a rope-." On August 7, 1974, Petit and three friends, posing as construction workers, began their evening ascent from the elevators to the remaining stairs with a 440-pound cable and equipment, prepared to carry out their clever but dangerous scheme to secure the wire. The pacing of the narrative is as masterful as the placement and quality of the oil-and-ink paintings. The interplay of a single sentence or view with a sequence of thoughts or panels builds to a riveting climax. A small, framed close-up of Petit's foot on the wire yields to two three-page foldouts of the walk. One captures his progress from above, the other from the perspective of a pedestrian. The vertiginous views paint the New York skyline in twinkling starlight and at breathtaking sunrise. Gerstein captures his subject's incredible determination, profound skill, and sheer joy. The final scene depicts transparent, cloud-filled skyscrapers, a man in their midst. With its graceful majesty and mythic overtones, this unique and uplifting book is at once a portrait of a larger-than-life individual and a memorial to the towers and the lives associated with them.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2003 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 11/01/2003 Here’s a joyful true story of the World Trade Center from a time of innocence before 9/11. In 1974 French trapeze artist Philippe Petit walked a tightrope suspended between the towers before they were completed. Gerstein’s simple words and dramatic ink-and-oil paintings capture the exhilarating feats, the mischief, and the daring of the astonishing young acrobat. He knew his plan was illegal, so he dressed as a construction worker, and, with the help of friends, lugged a reel of cable up the steps during the night and linked the buildings in the sky. As dawn broke, he stepped out on the wire and performed tricks above the city. Gerstein uses varied perspectives to tell the story--from the close-up jacket picture of one foot on the rope to the fold-out of Petit high above the traffic, swaying in the wind. Then there’s a quiet view of the city skyline now, empty of the towers, and an astonishing image of the tiny figure high on the wire between the ghostly buildings we remember. - Copyright 2003 Booklist.