"10 Best Illustrated
Books of the Year 2003!"
The Man Who Walked
Between Two Towers
Most kids have only one horrible memory of the twin towers. Stricken, aflame, in collapse. Now kids have the chance to enjoy a more pleasant memory, thanks to a new picture book, arguably the very best of the year: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein (Roaring Brook; 40 pages; $17. 95; ages 5-8). On one level, Gerstein recounts the audacious act of Philippe Petit, who 30 years ago strung a cable between the brand-new twin towers. For one hour, he dazzled bystanders with his high-wire act as cops yelled into their bullhorns for him to get down.
On another level, Gerstein moves into the zone of fable -- showing how the French-born aerialist represents eternal lessons about freedom and courage. It's a gentle call to take risks, to achieve, and then, and only then, to be our best selves.
The book is a tour de force. Delicate ink and oil paintings convey Petit's
agility, determination, bravery and delight. Two fold-outs give a dizzying
sense of the great distance across a city chasm and of the great height
from wire to street. It's absolutely breathtaking.
Gerstein's text is understated, especially in closing. Alone on a white
page appears the line, "Now the towers are gone," with a painting
of the new skyline on the opposite page. And finally, he offers the simple
summary: "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are
still there. And part of that memory is the joyful morning, Aug. 7, 1974,
when Philippe Petit walked between them in the air."
Susan Faust, a librarian at San Francisco's Katherine Delmar Burke School, is the chair of the Newbery Committee that will honor the most distinguished writing in the children's books of 2004.
Susan Faust 
