Main_large

Dreaming Up

Review
By School Library Journal

A clever introduction to architecture. Each spread shows children playing on one side and a photograph of a famous building on the other. . . . Each spread also contains a short poem, many rhyming, that describes the youngster’s play. The poems are printed in large font and are typeset to complement the shape of the architecture pictured. They are age appropriate and well crafted; for example, the one for the Montreal Biosphere reads, “Easy peasy as can be/toothpicks joining one, two, three.” Back matter includes brief paragraphs about each building and mini portraits and paragraphs about the architects, who come from a variety of countries; most are men. This book is more accessible than J. Patrick Lewis’s Monumental Verse (National Geographic, 2005) or a more factual text like Culture in Action: Architecture (Raintree, 2009) and is a good precursor for either of them.