Kids like to build: with wooden blocks or with their toast (that was T last week), children uniformly find ways to construct. They are also curious. Almost since he started talking, T has been asking "Dat?" ("What is that?"), "Comes from?", and "Why?" Parents seem to agree universally that the barrage of questions can be exhausting. Put these two traits together, and you get kids who want to know how stuff is built. That makes books about building a hugely important genre in children's literature.
Last summer, our library's summer theme was Build a Better World. It featured many books about building, but above all, we were checking out books about the construction process. I soon lost count of how many talking trucks and tool-wielding animals we read about. We learned about what is at a construction site, but that was pretty much the extent of it. The three books you see above delve a bit deeper into the building world. From the impact on a community (Sky Boys), to the introspective, artistic process of design (Fallingwater), they show architecture to be more than just bricks and steel.
Reading these three books together, we were able to look at the far-reaching impact of construction: from the introspective, creative start in an architect's mind, to the jobs created as the building goes up, to the world's attention to a breathtaking new structure. This was a way of examining something that we might take for granted, namely the buildings around us, and of noticing the interplay of art, science, math, interpersonal skills, community. Not only does T get to learn about building, but he can ask all kinds of other questions that wouldn't arise from a Lego building book. (I have Lego City: Build this City pretty much memorized, but there's only so much I can find to say about it. And T gets annoyed with my improvisation of the title, cue "We built this city...") Branching out from construction site books proved enjoyable for both of us, prompting more questions about each book as well as some comparative discussion of all three.
On a personal note, I liked reading construction books that deal with real-life structures that T's father or I have visited. Being able to relate them to Mommy and Daddy allows T to personalize the subject matter and also ask us about our experiences, which he loves doing. Keep those questions coming!
Sky Boys
Written by Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by James E. Ransome
Published in 2004
Fallingwater
Written by Marc Harshman and Anna Egan Smucker
Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Published in 2017
Mr. Ferris and His Wheel
Written by Katherine Gibbs Davis
Illustrated by Gilbert Ford
Published in 2014
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