Customer Reviews

Grand Central Terminal: Gateway to New York City

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautiful book. It is beautiful to look at, it is beautiful to read. The words have a symbiotic relationship with the illustrations, and the illustrations with the words. Together they tell a story that in lesser hands would be just another one of those "we built a bigger better longer something" book, but in the capable hands of the writer and designer they tell the story of Grand Central Terminal - which is basically a story of engineering and city planning - as if they were witnessing the miracle of birth, which, of course, they were. We gave the book to a ten-year old girl who lives next door. She shyly took it, opened it, looked at it, thanked us, and disappeared with it.

As this interesting new book tells us, there is a lot more to Grand Central Terminal than the present building. The story behind the Terminal is fascinating, and it's told here in a compelling, accessible fashion that both competent young readers and adults can enjoy. Author has a warm, chatty style that works well for the story, which gets complex at times. Book is gorgeous to look at as well--stunning photos, although too bad some are so small. Nice maps, time line, glossary, etc. Overall, extremely informative and highly recommended.

Bought this book for my 8 year old son after his first trip to NYC. He was fascinated with the terminal and equally thrilled with his book. It gives an incredible history and has awesome pictures. He reads it over and over.

Before you buy this book you should know that it's written in a picture-book style for kids. The pictures are beautiful and I wish there were more of them. It's a great introduction to GCT for those who love the old railroad glory days. It's much better than the cartoon-style "Old Penn Station" book.