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

by K.L. Going, Lauren Stringer (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442478282
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	590L (what's this?)
File size:	99 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 10 Years

About the Author

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; Can’t Stop Kissing That Baby, illustrated by Fiona Lee; 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.

Lauren Stringer has illustrated many celebrated picture books, including Deer Dancer by Mary Lyn Ray; The Princess and Her Panther by Wendy Orr; Scarecrow and Snow, both written by Cynthia Rylant; as well as her own Winter Is the Warmest Season, When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, The Dark Was Done, and An Abundance of Light. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit her at LaurenStringer.com.

Editorial Reviews

The life and work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright provide a rich mine of material for biographers and art historians. Going’s picture-book biography is sensibly limited to two themes—geometry and nature—tracing how Wright’s early
childhood, spent playing and dreaming in forests and fields and building with geometric blocks, was the foundation of his work and his long and illustrious career. She writes lovingly and rhythmically (“Raindrops made changing shapes— clear and cold. Lightning made jagged shapes—sharp and burnt. The river made smooth shapes—long and curved”), but she avoids a tone of hero-worship and never names Wright. He is “the baby,” then “the boy,” and then “the architect.” The illustrations make the historical and personal setting specific, but in the text he could be any imaginative, aware child. Stringer’s warm and accessible pictures show Wright at various stages of life against backdrops that nod to his designs. Every aspect of the book is thoughtful, from the square trim size to the color palette to the typeface based on lettering designed by Wright. Author’s and illustrator’s notes, a list of sources, and a key to the Wright buildings and structures incorporated into the illustrations round out this inviting introduction.

November/ December 2017 - The Horn Book Magazine

In a biography both concrete and touched with whimsy, Going introduces Frank Lloyd Wright, first as the boy who became intrigued with shapes, and then as the man who changed the world of architecture. As a young boy, he was given Frobel Gifts—wooden blocks—a cube, sphere, pyramid, and cylinder. A robust two-page spread shows young Frank stacking, building, and knocking them down. He then realized single shapes could be put together into many other shapes. Frank saw shapes in nature as well: triangles in spider webs and hexagons in honeycombs. The observations delight as well as linger, and a grown Frank, still inspired by his childhood blocks and memories of life out of doors, uses these ideas in his career as an architect. “When other architects chose walls, he chose windows,” says Going, and, indeed, the illustrations show Wright’s intricate glass creations from his many structures (identified in the back matter). Although some of the depictions of his buildings, several to a page, are too small to appreciate, they do generate an overall sense of the artist’s range. The simplicity of Going’s words work neatly in tandem with Stringer’s artwork, reminiscent of illustrations of the 1930s and 1940s. A spot-on introduction to Wright and an evocative recognition of the way a child is father to the man.

August 1, 2017 - STARRED REVIEW Booklist

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

2017-05-31
A whimsical look at the life of one of the best-known American architects.Surrounded by pictures of famous buildings in his nursery, a white baby's mother encourages him to soak up images of the world around him. Playing with blocks gives young Frank a sense of how geometry works, and summers on his uncle's farm allow him to experience nature and discover shapes in everything he sees. Art and text work together to convey an inevitability to Wright's growth toward his famous Prairie style architecture. Stringer's watercolor illustrations depict the contrasting yet complementary geometric shapes and curved lines that characterize Wright's work. The book's strong design begins with its nearly square shape and a cover that's reminiscent of one of Wright's leaded stained glass windows. The theme of windows looking out onto the world is evident throughout, incorporating elements unique to Wright's style. Rich colors are balanced with a clear, direct storyline that will capture children's natural interest in the stuff of imagination. Simple prose set in a light type that reflects Wright's art serves as a jumping-off point for each of the expansive illustrations, giving young readers ample opportunity to discover hidden gems in the pages, such as the red squares that are scattered throughout Wright's work. A lovely introduction to the impact that a creative mind can have on the world. (author's note, illustrator's note, sources, key to works depicted) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews