Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright Turns the Heartland into a Home

by Barb Rosenstock, Christopher Silas Neal (Illustrator)

Overview

In this book about Frank Lloyd Wright for kids, young readers will learn all about America's first world-famous architect.

Frank Lloyd Wright loved the Wisconsin prairie where he was born. But as his family moved across the United States, young Frank found his own home in shapes: rectangles, triangles, half-moons, and circles. When he returned to his beloved prairie, Frank pursued a career in architecture, as he didn't think the Victorian-era homes found there fit the prairie landscape. Using his knowledge and love of shapes, Frank created houses more organic to the land. He redesigned the American home inside and out, developing a truly unique architecture style. Author Barb Rosenstock and artist Christopher Silas Neal explore the early life and creative genius of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, highlighting his passion, imagination, and ingenuity, in this STEAM nonfiction picture book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629794402
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	493,198
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Barb Rosenstock is the author of many picture book biographies, including Blue Grass Boy: The Story of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass Music; Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library; Dorothea's Eyes; Ben Franklin's Big Splash; and The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America's Hero. Her picture book on Vasily Kandinsky, The Noisy Paint Box, won the 2015 Caldecott Honor Medal.

Christopher Silas Neal is the author and illustrator of multiple picture books, including I Won't Eat That and Everyone. He is also the illustrator of Kate Messner's Over and Under the Pond, Over and Under the Snow, and Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt. Visit csneal.com.

Editorial Reviews

07/08/2019

An obsession with shapes serves as a leitmotif as Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) grows to be a master architect. In Rosenstock’s telling, his aesthetic was rooted in a childhood love of his Wisconsin prairie home’s natural geometries (“oval milkweed seeds, six-sided honeycombs, and triangle-faced badgers”) and his fascination with blocks. Wright’s awareness of spatial forms leads to his feeling that “the old European-style houses didn’t fit America’s landscape,” so he strikes out on his own, designing radically different buildings. “In Frank’s houses, people stood on shapes, sat on shapes, slept on shapes. They looked through shapes, ate off shapes, played by shape-light.” Neal’s stylized illustrations are geometrically anchored, with crisp lines and shapes that occasionally echo Wright’s signature patterning, and the earnest, informative narrative centers the subject’s relatable interests. Substantial supplemental materials include an author’s note, sources, and multiple photos of his work, where, “like magic, he shook dozens of shapes from his shirtsleeves.” Ages 7–10. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Junior Library Guild Selection
Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People
NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book 

"An obsession with shapes serves as a leitmotif as Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) grows to be a master architect... Neal’s stylized illustrations are geometrically anchored, with crisp lines and shapes that occasionally echo Wright’s signature patterning, and the earnest, informative narrative centers the subject’s relatable interests. Substantial supplemental materials include an author’s note, sources, and multiple photos of his work." –Publishers Weekly

'This picture-book biography captures how Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized the American home. Lyrical text recalls Wright’s early passion for architecture and his desire to break away from the old European-style houses he felt didn’t match the American landscape. Digitally enhanced mixed-media artwork not only reflects colors that match Wright’s moods and physical locales, but also uses geometric shapes to embody his concepts. This look at Wright’s creative process will inspire children to take notice of their surroundings." –Booklist

"In this picture book biography of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Rosenstock emphasizes the development of Wright's unique architectural vision... instead of focusing on specific buildings Wright created, this book highlights the roots of his thinking... an excellent introduction to the ideas behind Wright's architecture." –School Library Journal

"This very early introduction to the pre-eminent architect starts with his childhood, rich with prairie influences and a fascination with shapes... a compact narrative... makes clear the impact one person’s vision can have. Mixed-media and digital art combines childlike crayon-effectlines and textures with crisply stylized shapes; Neal stealthily builds up the pre-Wright landscape as cluttered with gingerbread houses, arrestingly interrupted with the bold horizontality of an early Wright building. This may help give weight to kids’ early play or open up their considerations of their own landscapes..." –The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

08/01/2019

Gr 2–5—In this picture book biography of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Rosenstock emphasizes the development of Wright's unique architectural vision; he grew up to believe that houses should fit the landscapes surrounding them and the lifestyle of families living in them. He thought that houses should also include the basic shapes that he had grown to love as a young boy. Instead of focusing on specific buildings Wright created, this book highlights the roots of his thinking—how what he believed as a boy influenced what he did as a grown man. These ideas are reinforced by Neal's illustrations. The rolling, colorful prairie of Wisconsin that Wright loved is in contrast with the gray, rocky coast of New England where his family moved when he was nine. Neal also contrasts the old-style European houses being built on the prairie with Wright's newer vision of a prairie house that fit the landscape. Back matter deepens understanding of Wright's delight in shapes and natural landscapes, and includes photographs of the subject and some of his outstanding architecture. VERDICT An excellent introduction to the ideas behind Wright's architecture. Use with K.L. Going's The Shape of the World and Lynda Waggoner's Fallingwater to learn more about the man who has been called America's greatest architect.—Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York

School Library Journal

2019-06-23
An American master builder was inspired by basic geometry and the Midwestern prairie.

In boyhood, Frank Lloyd Wright was entranced by the land around him. To help him cope with frequent family moves that take him far from his beloved Wisconsin home, Wright's mother gave him sets of wooden blocks; he loved the myriad ways he could arrange their shapes. Recognizing that the multicolored, European-style homes popular at the time didn't meld with the landscape's natural contours nor suit contemporary American lifestyles, the adult Wright envisioned "a new kind of house." He opened his own firm and, using the plains' own shapes and colors as templates, designed long, rectangular "Prairie Houses" that blended organically into their surroundings. The text is serviceable as it provides a simple blueprint of the life and career of this 20th-century visionary, but there is no glossary for the many architecture-related terms used. Wright quotes appear throughout. Readers will be interested in how Wright's fascination with shapes and nature informed his work and should be encouraged to create their own "building designs." Dynamic mixed-media illustrations are replete with shapes: Many pages emphasize verticals and horizontals; some feature "wood-grained" blocks; trees are drawn with rounded leaves and sticklike trunks. Characters default white. A spread in the backmatter includes photos of some of Wright's most famous structures.

A competent introduction to a master whose ideas still influence today's buildings. (author's note, sources) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews