The Shape of the World: A Portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright

by K L Going (Author) Lauren Stringer (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

A little boy who loves to find shapes in nature grows up to be one of America's greatest architects in this inspiring biography of Frank Lloyd Wright.

When Frank Lloyd Wright was a baby, his mother dreamed that he would become a great architect. She gave him blocks to play with and he learned that shapes are made up of many other shapes. As he grew up, he loved finding shapes in nature. Wright went on to study architecture and create buildings that were one with the natural world around them. He became known as one of the greatest American architects of all time.

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School Library Journal

K-Gr 3--This picture book biography of Frank Lloyd Wright addresses the question: Do seeds planted early in life bloom into greatness? Wright's mother decorated the walls of his nursery with pictures of architectural marvels and gave him the toy that would most spark his imagination: a set of wooden blocks. Readers witness a young Wright creating elaborate designs with his blocks and discovering through play how shapes are made of other shapes. Later in life, while performing manual labor on his uncle's farm, Wright kept his mind busy by pondering connections between geometric shapes and the natural world around him. When he became an architect, he synthesized these sensibilities into buildings that were remarkable for their fluid yet geometric design, in harmony with the landscape around them. The text makes no mention of more controversial aspects of Wright's life; Going's focus on a successful career born of childhood passions keeps the narrative child-friendly and seamless. Acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil illustrations depict many of Wright's more famous structures, such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, using earth tones that reflect Wright's reverence for nature. The book is designed in a square format, echoing Wright's distinctive red square signature. VERDICT A pleasing addition to picture book biography or art collections for children.--Suzanne LaPierre, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

A boyhood fascination with shapes and nature informed the hundreds of structures Frank Lloyd Wright would go on to design as an architect. Going and Stringer thoughtfully examine those twin influences through this biography's poetic text and handsome illustrations. Created with pencil and paint, Stringer's layouts draw on the geometric shapes and strong horizontal lines of the Prairie School movement; several of Wright's famous buildings, including Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, appear throughout (a closing guide identifies these and other structures). Going, meanwhile, emphasizes the curiosity, questioning, and observation that shaped his designs: "He never forgot the smooth weight of the blocks his mother had given him when he was a boy. He remembered the hills and prairies surrounding his family's farm." A lovely introduction to the work of this trailblazing architect. Ages 5-10. Author's agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

In Going's title, young Frank Lloyd Wright is encouraged by his mother to investigate shapes, and as he fingers the smooth wood of his building blocks, he comes to understand how shapes fit within shapes and, later, how that arrangement works in nature. When he became an architect, this perspective manifested in the angular cantilevers of domestic architecture nestling in wooded settings, in "towers as tall and thick as trees," in windows that admitted the outside rather than walls that excluded it....[the] illustrations reflect the designs of their [subject]...[and] incorporates the architect's imagination at play alongside actual buildings come to life...supplies a list of resources and closing author notes.—BCCB
K L Going
K.L. Going is the author of many critically acclaimed novels, including The Liberation of Gabriel King and the Printz Honor-winning Fat Kid Rules the World, as well as the picture books Bumpety, Dunkety, Thumpety-Thump!, illustrated by Simone Shin, and The Shape of the World, illustrated by Lauren Stringer. She lives with her family in Glen Spey, New York. Visit her at KLGoing.com.

Debra Frasier has written and illustrated many acclaimed picture books, including A Fabulous Fair Alphabet; Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster; and the beloved and bestselling On the Day You Were Born. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781442478213
Lexile Measure
590
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Beach Lane Books
Publication date
September 05, 2017
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Art
JNF005000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Architecture
JNF013070 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Concepts | Size & Shape
Library of Congress categories
Biographies
United States
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiograp
Size
Architects
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Shape
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Architecture
Concepts
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Concepts / Size & Shape

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