The Man Who Walked Between the Towers [Paperback]

Mordicai Gerstein (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: March 29, 2007 | Age Range: 5 - 8 years | Lexile Measure: 480L (What's this?)

In 1974, French aerialist Philippe Petit threw a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center and spent an hour walking, dancing, and performing high-wire tricks a quarter mile in the sky. This picture book captures the poetry and magic of the event with a poetry of its own: lyrical words and lovely paintings that present the detail, daring, and--in two dramatic foldout spreads-- the vertiginous drama of Petit's feat.

 

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is the winner of the 2004 Caldecott Medal, the winner of the 2004 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Picture Books, and the winner of the 2006 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This effectively spare, lyrical account chronicles Philippe Petit's tight rope walk between Manhattan's World Trade Center towers in 1974. Gerstein (What Charlie Heard) begins the book like a fairytale, "Once there were two towers side by side. They were each a quarter of a mile high... The tallest buildings in New York City." The author casts the French aerialist and street performer as the hero: "A young man saw them rise into the sky.... He loved to walk and dance on a rope he tied between two trees." As the man makes his way across the rope from one tree to the other, the towers loom in the background. When Philippe gazes at the twin buildings, he looks "not at the towers but at the space between them.... What a wonderful place to stretch a rope; a wire on which to walk." Disguised as construction workers, he and a friend haul a 440-pound reel of cable and other materials onto the roof of the south tower. How Philippe and his pal shang the cable over the 140-feet distance is in itself a fascinating-and harrowing-story, charted in a series of vertical and horizontal ink and oil panels. An inventive foldout tracking Philippe's progress across the wire offers dizzying views of the city below; a turn of the page transforms readers' vantage point into a vertical view of the feat from street level. When police race to the top of one tower's roof, threatening arrest, Philippe moves back and forth between the towers ("As long as he stayed on the wire he was free"). Gerstein's dramatic paintings include some perspectives bound to take any reader's breath away. Truly affecting is the book's final painting of the imagined imprint of the towers, now existing "in memory"-linked by Philippe and his high wire. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 6-As this story opens, French funambulist Philippe Petit is dancing across a tightrope tied between two trees to the delight of the passersby in Lower Manhattan. Gerstein places him in the middle of a balancing act, framed by the two unfinished World Trade Center towers when the idea hits: "He looked not at the towers, but at the space between them and thought, what a wonderful place to stretch a rope-." On August 7, 1974, Petit and three friends, posing as construction workers, began their evening ascent from the elevators to the remaining stairs with a 440-pound cable and equipment, prepared to carry out their clever but dangerous scheme to secure the wire. The pacing of the narrative is as masterful as the placement and quality of the oil-and-ink paintings. The interplay of a single sentence or view with a sequence of thoughts or panels builds to a riveting climax. A small, framed close-up of Petit's foot on the wire yields to two three-page foldouts of the walk. One captures his progress from above, the other from the perspective of a pedestrian. The vertiginous views paint the New York skyline in twinkling starlight and at breathtaking sunrise. Gerstein captures his subject's incredible determination, profound skill, and sheer joy. The final scene depicts transparent, cloud-filled skyscrapers, a man in their midst. With its graceful majesty and mythic overtones, this unique and uplifting book is at once a portrait of a larger-than-life individual and a memorial to the towers and the lives associated with them.
Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 5 - 8 years
  
• Paperback: 36 pages
• Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition (March 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031236878X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312368784
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Performing Arts

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 92 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "This is a TRUE story, Miss Cameron?" June 8, 2004

By Jessica Cameron

Format:Hardcover

I have heard that very refrain from children time and time again while reading this book. In my Gypsy-like lifestyle of a substitute teacher, I took this book with me, knowing that it would enchant the students I had, no matter where I was. Every class I read this to was spellbound. They would gasp and stare and just could not believe that a REAL person ever did what Phillipe was doing! I had a first grader reach out to touch the sky under Phillipe on one spread, he was so enthralled. In a class of 29 very-hard-to-impress third graders that I was in for 6 weeks, we made a project out of it when they designed their own drawings on what they would walk between, because they were so inspired. During the reading, near the end, on the page that stated quietly "Now the towers are gone," I had very quiet acceptance of the missing towers. The author tells the story with such reverent delight (if it was ever possible to combine the two, Gerstein has) that children naturally fall in and accept the story as is. "The Man Who Walked Between The Towers" has become one of my favorite children's books and has earned a spot in my teaching "bag of tricks." It is very moving and inspiring, and highly deserving of the Caldecott Medal for 2004.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A tribute to the WTC towers and one dream they inspired June 16, 2004

By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

On an otherwise normal day in August 1974, a young Frenchman pulled off what may be the most impressive (not to mention foolhardy) wire-walking exhibition in history. New York City's early commuters looked up to the almost-completed World Trade Center towers to see a man, experienced aerialist Phillippe Petit, walking back and forth across them on a wire. This amazing (albeit highly illegal) achievement has now been immortalized in impressive ink and oil paintings in Mordicai Gerstein in The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. Among the artwork you will find the ingenious use of two foldout illustrations, each one establishing an amazing change in perspective of Petit's wire-walking feat and making the drama of the event all that more palpable. Published in 2003 and the recipient of The Caldecott Medal, this book is sure to captivate many young minds with its story and artistry (with a sense of vertigo thrown in absolutely free of charge), and it does stand as something of a touching reminder of the two towers that fell on September 11, 2001 and the spell they cast in their own silent yet mighty fortitude.

Alongside the artwork is the story, economically told, of Petit's dream and the manner in which he made it come true. It describes how he and some friends dressed up as construction workers, hid out on both towers until nightfall, and got the wire-walking cable (which was a mere seven-eighths of an inch wide) in place, after which Petit walked, ran, danced, and even lay down on the outstretched wire over the course of nearly an hour. He was then, of course, arrested but, to my surprise, ordered only to perform his feats for the children of New York City. This is a fabulous story that will literally take your breath away, especially if you are as afraid of heights as I am, but I can't get over just how dangerous and illegal this was (to his friends as well as himself) and can only wonder how Petit got off so easily.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A man, a plan, a tower May 4, 2004

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

After the events of September 11 there was an odd movement on behalf of the children's book publishers to explain the event in picture book form for the benefit of the little ones. Some of these attempts verged on the callous (paper cut airplanes flying into paper cut buildings) while others were nice thoughts but ultimately raised more questions than they answered ("Fireboat", for example). In the case of Mr. Mordicai Gerstein, however, a happy medium was reached. Here is a book that is all about the Twin Towers, but it does not linger on their fate. A mere two years after the events of 9/11, this book is an eloquent and elegant elegy to a moment when the Twin Towers helped to bring the world a great deal of wonder and joy.

The story is based on the true tale of one Philippe Petit. A French aerialist, Petit was adept at juggling, unicycle riding, and (as it happened) tightrope walking. When construction finished on the Twin Towers in 1974, Petit happened upon the crazy notion of walking between them. The man was no stranger to such a stunt. He had, after all, walked between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral back in his native France. After asking the Tower's owners for permission, his request was quickly declined. To be allowed would fly in the face of a million safety regulations, after all. The quick thinking Petit reasoned that all that was left was to go ahead and do it anyway. Involving some friends, a construction disguise, and a four hundred and forty pound reel of cable, Petit successfully made it to the roof of one tower in the night and connected the line between the towers with help. Then, as the dawn broke, he did his famous walk across. Once finished, Petit was sentenced by a judge to perform for the children of the park as his penance; a punishment the artist suffered gladly. The book concludes the story on a wistful note. We view the space where once the towers stood and read, "Now the towers are gone". A ghost of the Two appears on the next page and the book says, "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there. And part of that memory is the joyful morning, August 7, 1974, when Philippe Petit walked between them in the air".

What Gerstein has done is give us a memory of the Twin Towers that is a good and joyful one. This is no mean task, especially when you consider the horrors that were to follow. I've heard an interesting assortment of objections to the book in my time. Some people argue that no book about the Twin Towers is appropriate for children, whether the book concentrates on 9/11 or not. Such sentiments are silly. You can't ignore the past and, when done tastefully, a book about a significant event can teach more to children than a lesson plan could ever hope to. Other objections say that the book glorifies a silly stunt. Considering the fact that Petit was well trained, took all the necessary precautions, and did what he did for the love of his art, this objection is petty at best. Some say that this is not Gerstein's strongest work and that he should have won the Caldecott for another book instead. I have not read other Gerstein creations, so my experience is (like that of the Caldecott committee) limited to only his most recent creation. But to say this book is not medal worthy is patently ridiculous. Just at glance at the book is enough to tell you that.

Look with me. The text is not only true, it is respectful. What I'm about to write here is second-hand knowledge garnered from a children's literature listserv, so I can't vouch that what I'm about to say is true. However, I believe that before this book was published Philippe Petit knew that it was being written and requested a look at the galleys prior to publication (not a ridiculous desire considering he was the book's star and hero). Such a look was not granted but just after publication Petit was allowed a copy of the story and he greatly approved of it. The only correction he wished to make was the section discussing the thickness of the cable he walked across. I believe he wished it to be changed from five-sixths of an inch to seven-eights of an inch. Future books have been published with this change, so if you happen to have an earlier printing of the story you may have a collector's item on your hands. My point with this story is the pains with which the author has taken to render everything in it factual. On top of that, it's very well written, with the viewer gasping and cheering with every close shave and near accident Petit incurs.

As for the illustrations, they are utterly lovely. From the windswept cover (note the very American bald eagle flying below Petit) to the large pull out sections showing both Petit's walk and the height at which he was walking. If you can read through this book and successfully suppress all shudders then you're a better man than I, Gunga Din. Best of all is how evocative the tale is. The title page displays the towers being built on a snowy day, and there is a repetitive motif of parents holding up babies to look at Petit. This book is filled with delicate wonders and scintillating details on every page.

I can't imagine how anyone could dislike this story, but some do. Just the same, if you want a picture book filled with beauty and breath-taking adventure, with one happy ending and one wistful ending apiece, select Gerstein's award winning creation. It deserves its applause.