Building [Hardcover]

Elisha Cooper (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

It begins with an empty city lot and ends with a gleaming new building.But what happens in between? With his trademark sketch pad, watercolors, and sharp eye for atmosphere and detail, Elisha Cooper takes note of what goes on at a construction site -- from the obvious to the not-so-obvious. And curious young builders will relish his funny observations and unfailing scrutiny. There are backhoes that look like messy eaters, and lots of hammering that sounds like do-re-mi. Come see (and hear) the building -- it's going up now!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From deserted urban lot to finished structure, this brief, amply illustrated volume documents the process of constructing a three-story building. As in his earlier children's books (Country Fair and Ballpark), Cooper's latest sketchbook strikes his signature pleasing balance between the factual and the whimsical. Watercolor and pencil illustrations combine small-scale, intentionally rudimentary images of busy workers with views of the building's structural progress. Often presented as extended captions, the narrative is as sprightly and informal as the artwork: a backhoe "gnaws into the earth and scoops up dirt like a messy eater trying to bring food to its mouth." Abundant anecdotes bring a refreshing, true-to-life quality to this chronicle (the hands of a worker smoothing wet concrete "are crusted in gunk and he has to use his wrist to push his glasses up his nose"; a contractor lugging toilets upstairs "bumps into walls and can't see her feet"). The text runs up and down the pagesAand occasionally even upside down. In one particularly playful arrangement of type, the words appear to spill from the spout of a cement mixer. Smoothly planting technical terms and techniques alongside a layperson's detailed observations, Cooper constructs a cheerful tribute to a significant accomplishment. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Architects, carpenters, masons, backhoes, cranes, lunch trucks, scaffolds, plastic sheets, and Porta Pottis are all part of the fascinating process of turning a vacant lot into a multistoried office building. Cooper fills these white pages with loosely sketched, watercolor-and-pencil renderings of construction-related people and things as he chronicles the events on a building site. The text design often reflects the activity taking place on the page and sometimes requires readers to rotate the book. The illustrations effectively capture the bustle and camaraderie of the multiethnic and gender-balanced crew, but are occasionally too blurry to be easily interpreted. The hand-printed labels accompanying some drawings are also frequently illegible. However, the text not only delivers a realistic description of the sights, sounds, and even smells of a construction site, but can also be whimsically fanciful, as when the backhoe "gnaws into the earth and scoops up dirt like a messy eater trying to bring food to its mouth." The challenging vocabulary requires a more sophisticated audience than Sue Tarsky's The Busy Building Book (Putnam, 1998), but this book hits the nail on the head for slightly older sidewalk superintendents.
Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 1st edition (April 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688164943
• ISBN-13: 978-0688164942
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,667,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elisha Cooper is the award-winning author of "Beach," which won the 2006 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. Other picture books include "A Good Night Walk," "Magic Thinks Big," and "Dance!," a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. His adult books include the memoir "Crawling: A Father's First Year." Elisha Cooper lives with his family in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Construction, Step by Step....., September 10, 2002

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building (Hardcover)

"This is a deserted lot. It sits between two buildings not far from downtown. It's mostly dirt, with a few tufts of grass, some weeds, and two trees with peeling bark. It's covered with broken glass and trash. A chain-link fence keeps people out..." So begins Elisha Cooper's tribute to construction. An architect arrives with plans and surveyors. Then a backhoe "scoops up dirt like a messy eater." Soon trucks filled with building materials come, along with the many workers ready to transform this once vacant lot into a new and beautiful building. Watch workers spread and smooth concrete, saw and nail boards, seal and caulk the roof, windows, and doorways, install insulation, and build new floors, walls, and stairs. Next come the electricians, plumbers, and painters to finish the inside and get it ready for people..... Mr Cooper's lyrical text is engaging and fascinating as it moves up, down, and across the pages mimicking the building process. His watercolor and pencil illustrations capture the small details in the text and complement the story beautifully. Together, word and art offer a creative and informative lesson in how a building comes to life. Perfect for youngsters 5-10, Building is an imaginative and evocative experience. "This is a building. It stands between two other buildings not far from downtown. It stands empty, waiting to be filled with people. You can't hear the hammering, can't smell the concrete, can't taste the fried chicken, can't see the measured beams. But they are all part of the building, and you can feel them."

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars humanizing detail, January 25, 2001

By 

Michael J. Glennon (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building (Hardcover)

My older boy, now three, has been having books about building and trucks and the like read to him now for well over eighteen months. Even with this potentially numbing single-issue reading list, we have cycled through a good number of books of this "genre" at bedtime. This is the first book that we have seen that has mentioned a port-a-john. While this might seem like an unnecessary thing (after all, why shouldn't folks who work on big rigs, drive trash trucks, fight fires, etc be like movie stars who don't go to the bathroom), it makes this otherwise simple book very effective, even after all the others we have seen. Together with other details-- the workers swap jokes, chat about last night's game, eat fried chicken, nap at lunch, etc.-- the cumulative effect is that the builders, who might otherwise seem abstractions, are made more like our boy, and us, and all of us. Our lad goes to the bathroom, why shouldn't workers? He likes jokes, etc. Their efforts seem more honest and real as a result and the book was, after all the others we have read, still was able to spark a conversation about building and like between my boy and me.