PICTURE BOOK - The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gerstein, Mordicai. (2003). The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. 1st ed, Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 761317913

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Philippe Petit is an everyday street performer.  He decides that after looking up at the two towers that it would be a great location to tightrope across. Follow his journey of making his way with equipment in tow to the top of the towers to begin his frightening, yet exciting journey.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Author Mordicai Gerstein does a fantastic job retelling how a French man named Philippe Petit spent an hour walking across a thin cable that was hung between the World Trade Center buildings. His writing style really makes one feel as if they are witnessing the act in progress.

Not only does Gerstein have a way with his words, but his illustrations add to his story in so many ways.  His illustrations alone bring children of all ages into the story.  After reading this story and admiring the illustrations, a reader is left with the feeling that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Booklist (November 1, 2003 (Vol. 100, No. 5))

PreS-Gr. 3. Here's a joyful true story of the World Trade Center from a time of innocence before 9/11. In 1974 French trapeze artist Philippe Petit walked a tightrope suspended between the towers before they were completed. Gerstein's simple words and dramatic ink-and-oil paintings capture the exhilarating feats, the mischief, and the daring of the astonishing young acrobat. He knew his plan was illegal, so he dressed as a construction worker, and, with the help of friends, lugged a reel of cable up the steps during the night and linked the buildings in the sky. As dawn broke, he stepped out on the wire and performed tricks above the city. Gerstein uses varied perspectives to tell the story--from the close-up jacket picture of one foot on the rope to the fold-out of Petit high above the traffic, swaying in the wind. Then there's a quiet view of the city skyline now, empty of the towers, and an astonishing image of the tiny figure high on the wire between the ghostly buildings we remember.

Horn Book Guide starred (Spring 2004)

Is this another September 11 book? No--and yes. In 1974, Philippe Petit, the French street performer and high-wire walker, couldn't resist the temptation to dance between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Gerstein pulls the reader into the story with a conversational style extended by playful pen and paint illustrations. Like Petit, Gerstein conceals much careful planning behind an obvious enjoyment of his subject.

Horn Book Magazine (November/December, 2003)

"Once there were two towers side by side.... The tallest buildings in New York City." Another September 11 book? No -- and yes. Gerstein's story takes place in 1974, when the World Trade Towers' construction wasn't quite finished. Philippe Petit, the French street performer and high-wire walker, couldn't resist the temptation to dance between the twin towers. "Once the idea came to him he knew he had to do it! If he saw three balls, he had to juggle. If he saw two towers, he had to walk! That's how he was." Gerstein is in top form, pulling the reader into his story with a conversational style extended by playful pen and paint illustrations. Like Petit, Gerstein conceals much careful planning behind an obvious enjoyment of his subject. As the book starts, rectangular paintings are set well inside the edge of each white page. When Philippe and his co-conspirators, disguised as construction workers, toil through the night setting up the wire, the area between the illustrations' borders and the edge of the page fills with a gray-blue wash, providing the visual equivalent of foreboding background music. As dawn breaks and Philippe gets ready to step onto the wire, the blue fades away. Now we're ready to be exhilarated and terrified -- and on two successive foldout pages, we are. The first heart-stopping image shows Philippe from above as he moves to the middle of the wire. The tiny buildings below him seem terrifyingly distant while on the far right his destination, the top of the tower, is shown with exaggerated perspective, taking our eye down, down, and off the bottom of the page. Next we see the same scene from the ground with the book turned on its side. People on the street look up in surprise and fear while a cop calls for assistance. The denouement takes us back to solid ground and back to the rectangle-on-white illustrations. Philippe is arrested, as we knew he would be, but the kindly judge sentences him to perform in Central Park. Finally, the last pages bring us to the present ("Now the towers are gone"), showing the current empty skyscape. "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there." And so they are on the last page, translucent against the clouds, with a tiny Philippe on his wire connecting the towers to each other and the past to the present.

Kirkus Reviews starred (August 1, 2003)

A spare recounting of Philippe Petit's daring 1974 wire walk between the Twin Towers depicts him as a street performer who defies authority to risk his feat, is arrested, and then sentenced to perform for the children of New York. At the conclusion, on the only non-illustrated page are the stark words, "Now the towers are gone," followed by the changed skyline and finally by a skyline on which are etched the ghost-like shapes of the towers as memory of the buildings and of Petit's exploit. At the heart are the spreads of Petit on the narrow wire, so far above the city that Earth's curve is visible. Two ingenious gatefolds draw readers' eyes into the vertiginous sweep of wirewalker-sky and city below. Unparalleled use of perspective and line-architectural verticals opposed to the curve of wires and earth-underscore disequilibrium and freedom. In a story that's all about balance, the illustrations display it exquisitely in composition. Readers of all ages will return to this again and again for its history, adventure, humor, and breathtaking homage to extraordinary buildings and a remarkable man. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5+)

Library Journal (June 1, 2011)

Gerstein illustrates the captivating story of Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. Winner of the 2004 Caldecott Medal. (SLJ 11/03) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly (September 1, 2003)

This effectively spare, lyrical account chronicles Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between Manhattan's World Trade Center towers in 1974. Gerstein (What Charlie Heard) begins the book like a fairy tale, "Once there were two towers side by side. They were each a quarter of a mile high... The tallest buildings in New York City." The author casts the French aerialist and street performer as the hero: "A young man saw them rise into the sky.... He loved to walk and dance on a rope he tied between two trees." As the man makes his way across the rope from one tree to the other, the towers loom in the background. When Philippe gazes at the twin buildings, he looks "not at the towers but at the space between them.... What a wonderful place to stretch a rope; a wire on which to walk." Disguised as construction workers, he and a friend haul a 440-pound reel of cable and other materials onto the roof of the south tower. How Philippe and his pals hang the cable over the 140-feet distance is in itself a fascinating-and harrowing-story, charted in a series of vertical and horizontal ink and oil panels. An inventive foldout tracking Philippe's progress across the wire offers dizzying views of the city below; a turn of the page transforms readers' vantage point into a vertical view of the feat from street level. When police race to the top of one tower's roof, threatening arrest, Philippe moves back and forth between the towers ("As long as he stayed on the wire he was free"). Gerstein's dramatic paintings include some perspectives bound to take any reader's breath away. Truly affecting is the book's final painting of the imagined imprint of the towers, now existing "in memory"-linked by Philippe and his high wire. Ages 5-8. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal (November 1, 2003)

K-Gr 6-As this story opens, French funambulist Philippe Petit is dancing across a tightrope tied between two trees to the delight of the passersby in Lower Manhattan. Gerstein places him in the middle of a balancing act, framed by the two unfinished World Trade Center towers when the idea hits: "He looked not at the towers, but at the space between them and thought, what a wonderful place to stretch a rope-." On August 7, 1974, Petit and three friends, posing as construction workers, began their evening ascent from the elevators to the remaining stairs with a 440-pound cable and equipment, prepared to carry out their clever but dangerous scheme to secure the wire. The pacing of the narrative is as masterful as the placement and quality of the oil-and-ink paintings. The interplay of a single sentence or view with a sequence of thoughts or panels builds to a riveting climax. A small, framed close-up of Petit's foot on the wire yields to two three-page foldouts of the walk. One captures his progress from above, the other from the perspective of a pedestrian. The vertiginous views paint the New York skyline in twinkling starlight and at breathtaking sunrise. Gerstein captures his subject's incredible determination, profound skill, and sheer joy. The final scene depicts transparent, cloud-filled skyscrapers, a man in their midst. With its graceful majesty and mythic overtones, this unique and uplifting book is at once a portrait of a larger-than-life individual and a memorial to the towers and the lives associated with them.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

5. CONNECTIONS

• If you are a history teacher, this is a great picture book to bring in for discussion before hitting on major 9/11 historical factors.

• Other books for children showing that you can do anything you put your mind to:

• Agaoglu, Basak. The Almost Impossible Thing.  ISBN 0399548291

• Thompson, L. A., & Qualls, S. Emmanuel's dream: The true story of Emmanuel Ofosu yeboah. ISBN 0449817445