The Random House Book of How Things Were Built

An illustrated history of more than sixty notable structures of the ancient and modern world. Includes detailed diagrams and a glossary of architectural terms.

Grade 3-6-- A hodgepodge of 60 diagrams offers a quick glance at some of the world's major historical and contemporary stuctures. In chronological order, double-page layouts provide cutaway diagrams, layouts, and labeled sketches. Sidebars or boxes add details to explain architectural and engineering technology or vocabulary. Few readers will get enough detail for reports, and it is unlikely the book will be read from cover to cover. Rather, it can be used as a prelude to more extensive reading or as a menu for readers to pick out topics to research more fully elsewhere. The topics included are as diverse as Machu Picchu and the Hoover Dam, as familiar as the Eiffel Tower, and as obscure as the Sagrada Familia , a cathedral in Spain. Details are occasionally too small to see clearly what is being discussed. There is no timeline. Young's Castles, Pyramids and Palaces (Usborne, 1990) looks at fewer, but many of the same, stuctures and has an illustrated glossary and a helpful timeline. --Jeanette Larson, Texas State Library, Austin
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.