The Great Bridge-Building Contest - Hardcover

Bo Zaunders

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810949296 ISBN 13: 9780810949294

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2004

Synopsis

Part David Macaulay's The Way Things Work and part Johnny Appleseed, a captivating true story about a dream that came true

Roxie Munro and her husband, Bo Zaunders, have created an enthralling illustrated biography set in 1800s Virginia-a wonderful book for budding architects and engineers, as well as bridge and history aficionados. Lemuel Chenoweth is a shy western Virginia furniture maker with only a third-grade education and a vision when he heads to Richmond, Virginia, to enter a bridge-designing contest. Lemuel stuns the judges and the highfalutin' competition by assembling an extraordinary bridge model-one that can support his own weight-and he wins. Built entirely without nails, his bridge became one of the most famous in the country and was the site of the first land battle of the Civil War. The Great Bridge-Building Contest tells the dramatic story of its remarkable existence. AUTHOR BIO: Roxie Munro and Bo Zaunders have created numerous award-winning books for children on inventors, adventurers, early aviators, and great buildings. Ms. Munro's Inside-Outside series has sold more than 130,000 copies. Roxie has illustrated numerous covers for The New Yorker and has an avid following among collectors.

About this title

About the Author

Roxie Munro and Bo Zaunders have created numerous award-winning books for children on inventors, adventurers, early aviators, and great buildings. Ms. Munro's Inside-Outside series has sold more than 130,000 copies. Roxie has illustrated numerous covers for The New Yorker and has an avid following among collectors.

From the Inside Flap

This is the story of an unlikely hero, a furniture maker with a third-grade education, who, through humor, showmanship, and know-how, came to build one of the country's great covered bridges.

In the nineteenth century, a time of travel when more and more Americans moved around their ever-expanding country, something got in everyone's way: water. Rivers, streams, lakes, and bays - these had to be crossed to get from state to state or even from town to town. At the time this meant wading through often dangerous currents or waiting for someone to take you across by boat. The country needed a change: it needed bridges. The state of Virginia decided to hold a contest for bridge-builders and the greatest engineers and craftsmen of the time responded. They would all be beaten by the humblest of the contestants: Lemuel Chenoweth.

This is a fascinating peek at a time of enormous innovation and change, as experienced by an appealing yet little-known figure, and brought to life by the award-winning team of Bo Zaunders and Roxie Munro. Builders young and old will be inspired by the story of Lemuel's Bridge.

Reviews

Grade 2-5–While the title of this book is misleading–it is really a tribute to Lemuel Chenoweth and the covered bridge he built in 1852–readers will learn something about how some public works were commissioned at the time. The competition is described, quickly zeroing in on Chenoweth, a self-taught engineer who, in answering the call to design a bridge to span the Tygart River in Virginia, traveled for over a week from his rural home to Richmond to present his simple model. The book discusses aspects of the bridge and its construction and its importance during the Civil War, and concludes with facts about the engineer's life and descriptions of covered bridges that still exist in various parts of the U.S. Munro's colorful ink-and-watercolor illustrations dominate the pages and have more life than Zaunder's text. A few words (phenomenal, political upheaval, and cantilever) lack sufficient explanation. This informative book about the accomplishments of an ingenious man will interest children who enjoy reading about engineering feats.–Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Mt. St. Alban, Washington, DC

Gr. 3-5. This picture book for older children celebrates a little-known engineering feat. In 1850 Lemuel Chenoweth, a humble cabinetmaker from northwestern Virginia (now West Virginia), traveled to Richmond to compete against better-educated and more-experienced men to design and build a bridge across the Tygart River at Philippi. Chenoweth had no blueprints to display, but he put together a wooden model of his covered bridge, placed its ends on the seats of two chairs, and walked across it to demonstrate its strength. Awarded the contract, he built the bridge, which still stands. Zaunders makes the history of this bridge into an interesting story, including a double-page spread on Civil War history related to the site. The book's pleasing india- and colored-ink illustrations were created by Roxie Munro, a direct descendent of Chenoweth. A brief biography of Chenoweth is appended, as are three pages (charmingly illustrated and captioned) featuring still-surviving covered bridges. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810949296
• ISBN 13: 9780810949294
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32