Skyscrapers: Uncovering Technology

Who designs skyscrapers? How are they built? Why don't they fall down?

From the Tower of Babel to the Great Pyramids to New York's Freedom Tower (to be completed in 2010), skyscrapers in one form or another have captured humankind's imagination. This book covers the world's most important skyscrapers, beginning with the earliest attempts to build to the sky, through the major design periods, and right up to post-September 11.

The acetate overlays feature:

• The Chrysler Building: cutaway view of the crown
• The New York Skyline: 1876 and today
• The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank: cutaway view of its structure
• The Petronas Tower, Kuala Lumpur: in 1996, the world's tallest building.

The Uncovering series: Exposing science and technology in stunning color and detail.

Jam-packed with exacting full-color illustrations, these titles focus on topics of particular interest to young readers. Informative text and descriptive captions and sidebars complement dozens of annotated drawings. Each book contains four acetate overlays, used in some cases to show changes over time, in others to show a cutaway interior.

The Uncovering series explores science and technology focusing on topics of interest to young adult readers and featuring full-color illustrations, informative text, sidebars, captions and four acetate overlays.

StevenEngelfriedCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 4-8
Appealing visuals and plenty of well-chosen facts highlight key historical developments in these series entries. In familiar "Eyewitness"-style layouts, each spread contains several drawings or photographs in color accompanied by paragraph-length captions. Both titles progress chronologically. Airplanes moves smoothly from military and commercial air developments and back again, showing how both areas impacted technological advances. Skyscrapers focuses on architectural styles, individual buildings, and geographical trends, such as East Asian construction in the late 20th century. Details of the science behind flight and construction are minimal, since the emphasis is on notable achievements over time. Both books briefly mention key individuals in the fields, and each closes with an intriguing look at future possibilities. Four overlay pages in Airplanes neatly reveal some of the inner workings of featured vehicles. The cross sections shown in three of Skyscraper 's overlays are less exciting, but a fourth view contrasting the 1876 and present-day New York skylines is particularly effective. The writing is generally clear and concise, with easily accessible dates, facts, and dimensions. The 1870 date for New York's first skyscraper doesn't match an earlier statement that "the first skyscrapers were built in the 1880s and 1890s," however, and a paragraph on the Red Baron (Airplanes ) doesn't clarify which country he flew for. Overall, though, the texts and pictures work well together for random browsing or when read from start to finish. These are solid informational resources in a format that should appeal to many readers.

Chris Oxlade is the best-selling author of more than 150 non-fiction books, most of them explaining complex scientific ideas and modern technology to young readers in readable text.