  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 06/01/2017 K-Gr 3—This picture book biography of Frank Lloyd Wright addresses the question: Do seeds planted early in life bloom into greatness? Wright's mother decorated the walls of his nursery with pictures of architectural marvels and gave him the toy that would most spark his imagination: a set of wooden blocks. Readers witness a young Wright creating elaborate designs with his blocks and discovering through play how shapes are made of other shapes. Later in life, while performing manual labor on his uncle's farm, Wright kept his mind busy by pondering connections between geometric shapes and the natural world around him. When he became an architect, he synthesized these sensibilities into buildings that were remarkable for their fluid yet geometric design, in harmony with the landscape around them. The text makes no mention of more controversial aspects of Wright's life; Going's focus on a successful career born of childhood passions keeps the narrative child-friendly and seamless. Acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil illustrations depict many of Wright's more famous structures, such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, using earth tones that reflect Wright's reverence for nature. The book is designed in a square format, echoing Wright's distinctive red square signature. VERDICT A pleasing addition to picture book biography or art collections for children.—Suzanne LaPierre, Fairfax County Public Library, VA - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 08/01/2017 *Starred Review* In a biography both concrete and touched with whimsy, Going introduces Frank Lloyd Wright, first as the boy who became intrigued with shapes, and then as the man who changed the world of architecture. As a young boy, he was given Frobel Gifts—wooden blocks—a cube, sphere, pyramid, and cylinder. A robust two-page spread shows young Frank stacking, building, and knocking them down. He then realized single shapes could be put together into many other shapes. Frank saw shapes in nature as well: triangles in spider webs and hexagons in honeycombs. The observations delight as well as linger, and a grown Frank, still inspired by his childhood blocks and memories of life out of doors, uses these ideas in his career as an architect. “When other architects chose walls, he chose windows,” says Going, and, indeed, the illustrations show Wright’s intricate glass creations from his many structures (identified in the back matter). Although some of the depictions of his buildings, several to a page, are too small to appreciate, they do generate an overall sense of the artist’s range. The simplicity of Going’s words work neatly in tandem with Stringer’s artwork, reminiscent of illustrations of the 1930s and 1940s. A spot-on introduction to Wright and an evocative recognition of the way a child is father to the man. - Copyright 2017 Booklist. Loading...
 |