Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial
by Linda Booth Sweeney (Author) Shawn Fields (Illustrator)
Named to the Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year for 2020
20th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards "Must Reads": A Must-Read Picture Book
CYBILS Award short list
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, fifteen-year-old Dan French had no way to know that one day his tribute to the great president would transform a plot of Washington, DC marshland into America's gathering place. He did not even know that a sculptor was something to be. He only knew that he liked making things with his hands.
This is the story of how a farmboy became America’s foremost sculptor. After failing at academics, Dan was working the family farm when he idly carved a turnip into a frog and discovered what he was meant to do. Sweeney’s swift prose and Fields’s evocative illustrations capture the single-minded determination with which Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.
This is also the story of the Lincoln Memorial, French’s culminating masterpiece. Thanks to this lovingly created tribute to the towering leader of Dan’s youth, Abraham Lincoln lives on as the man of marble, his craggy face and careworn gaze reminding millions of seekers what America can be. Dan’s statue is no lifeless figure, but a powerful, vital touchstone of a nation’s ideals. Now Dan French has his tribute too, in this exquisite biography that brings history to life for young readers.
B&W and color
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School Library Journal
Gr 2-4-While the Lincoln Memorial is one of the most famous statues in the United States, the sculptor who created the statue is arguably not as well-known. This picture book biography tells the story of Daniel Chester French from his days as a farm boy drawing birds and making the neatest plow lines to his time as a preeminent sculptor. While the story begins in modern times with two unnamed children in color drawings, the bulk of the narrative is told in black-and-white illustrations on white pages. Color photographs of the statues are sometimes blended in with the illustrations. This is startling but effective. At the book's end, the children return to the now completed Lincoln memorial, closing the loop on a baffling and incongruous framing device that is the main detractor from this otherwise quite good biography. Back matter includes an excellent time line of French's life, complete with more color photographs and notes on the significance and legacy of the Lincoln Memorial, particularly as a site for speeches. VERDICT A good, simple biography on a lesser-known creator of a very famous landmark. It could serve as an excellent supplement to a collection of art or landmarks but not a first purchase.-Elizabeth Nicolai, Anchorage Public Library, AK
Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JNF007020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Historical
JNF006060 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Art | Sculpture
JNF025260 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | Symbols, Monuments, National Parks, Etc.
Biographies
United States
Washington (D.C.)
Buildings, structures, etc
Lincoln, Abraham
Sculptors
Monuments
Lincoln Memorial (Washington, D.C.)
French, Daniel Chester
