LS 5603 Picture Book Review #2

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gerstein, Mordicai. 2004. THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 04397000418
PLOT SUMMARY
This book recounts in an easy, talking style, the 1974 performance by Philippe Petit, of a high wire walk between the Twin Towers in New York City. From France, Petit was a street performer who knew this daring act was illegal, yet, desired to fulfill this dream so much that he posed as a construction worker while the buildings were still being completed and gained access to the roof tops. Throughout a night, Gerstein details the tasks completed in order to perform. Petit stepped out onto the wire as the sun was rising, danced until he was finished and walked back to officers to be handcuffed. A kind judge sentences him to perform for the children in the park.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This in depth view of New York City is portrayed with controlled pen and paint drawings, surrounded by thick white borders on the pages. When Petit arrives on top of the towers, the borders become a shaded blue and the pictures are shadowed with blues and blacks, representing both the night and the impending danger. As the final placement of the highwire takes place, the illustrations become elongated, showing the great distance of 140 feet. Petit’s actually walk/dance is vividly enlarged both horizontally and vertically on two successive foldout layouts. The book concludes with an eerie look at the city with a ghostly appearance of the Twin Towers looming over the other buildings from the ground view…with a tightrope and dancer posed in between.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist “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.”

Horn Book “Finally, the last pages bring us to the present ("Now the towers are gone"), showing the current empty skyscape. "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there." And so they are on the last page, translucent against the clouds, with a tiny Philippe on his wire connecting the towers to each other and the past to the present.”

CONNECTIONS
This book can serve as a historical reference, study of events of 9/11, as well as a fine example of illustration and story and how each can complement and support the other.
Utilize as a study of Caldecott Award winning books.
Part of a biographical study of Philippe Petit
Study of street and circus performers.
Appeals to an older elementary audience.