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ama_reads's review against another edition
2.0
Intricately illustrated with detailed pen and ink drawings that aptly tell the story. The text was informative, but not very engaging.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Impressively detailed. This was the redrawn version in color, though I'm thinking I might appreciate the original version better. Its hard to track the scale in space and time of this project. And yet I would have liked this work to have been even more detailed.
poplartears's review against another edition
4.0
We really enjoy these books and the videos that are based on them as well. Even though the videos are older and aren't fabulous quality they are interesting stories that combine real footage of cathedrals with a fictional story. These are a wonderful way to look at history and math.
joyfulme's review against another edition
4.0
Cathedral is the story of a hypothetical medieval cathedral building project in France. Like Macaulay’s other books in this series, it is masterfully illustrated, and provides many jumping off points for further study of guilds (and the collaborative application of their trades), medieval tools, and construction processes (planning, clearing, laying the foundation, scaffolding, masonry, tracery, winlasses, glassmaking) and architectural elements (vaults, trusses, flying buttresses, apse, nave, functional ornamentation such as the gargoyles, etc). The text is simple enough that it can be used as a read aloud for younger grades though the target audience is upper elementary grades and middle schoolers. Most adults will find it equally engaging and educational.
bibliothecarivs's review against another edition
5.0
Imagine what readers, teachers, librarians, and publishers thought when this, a children's picture book about the building of a fictional medieval French cathedral illustrated in black and white pen-and-ink, was released in 1973. The text is accompanied by large-scale drawings of stunning birds-eye views interspersed with instructional sketches of life on the ground. It must have blown everyone's minds. It was named a Caldecott Honor book.
(these samples don't do it justice - you must see it in its original large format.)
Despite loving David Macaulay's PBS programs Cathedral and Castle since childhood, I had never read this book until now. The programs followed me through my education from elementary school to community college and I later bought them on DVD so I could continue watching them at home and share them with my children. His drawing style influenced my own, which I believe later influenced my daughter's. I had the opportunity to meet Macaulay after a lecture at Utah State University in October, 2014 and he was as smart, kind, and creative as I always thought he was. He not only signed our copy of Cathedral, but he also left an original drawing on the title page. I'll treasure it forever.
(these samples don't do it justice - you must see it in its original large format.)
Despite loving David Macaulay's PBS programs Cathedral and Castle since childhood, I had never read this book until now. The programs followed me through my education from elementary school to community college and I later bought them on DVD so I could continue watching them at home and share them with my children. His drawing style influenced my own, which I believe later influenced my daughter's. I had the opportunity to meet Macaulay after a lecture at Utah State University in October, 2014 and he was as smart, kind, and creative as I always thought he was. He not only signed our copy of Cathedral, but he also left an original drawing on the title page. I'll treasure it forever.
greenreader's review against another edition
5.0
I checked this out while reading Ken Follet's the Pillars of the Earth to use as a visual reference.
tanyarobinson's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great introduction to historical architectural techniques, but the black and white illustrations are lacking.
calistareads's review against another edition
5.0
This book amazed me. I simply am blown away. The artwork is fantastic here. They are all black and white pencil drawings. David does amazing pictures of the Cathedral and all its parts and how it would be put together. It’s fascinating.
The book is long and its a story of putting together a cathedral from foundation to the spire. So, it’s not exciting storytelling, it’s interesting and amazing story telling. It is longish, about 20 minutes to read, so I would say this is for older children. I learned so much. I always wondered how those buildings were built and this book lays it out and it’s incredible. It is a special book. To me, making such great works with such simple tools always seemed like such a mystery. Seeing how they did it makes me in awe of them and I can see how they did it now and I’m more amazing by their will to build this.
This is a fictional building that took about 100 years to build, but it’s based off Notre Dame which took 200 years to build in reality.
The 8 year old likes fact books. This wasn’t so much a fact book, but she really got into this story and she was amazed by it. The 5 year old nephew was bored to tears. He wants to be a robot engineer, but he didn’t care for a building engineer at all. He kept complaining about how boring this was and he wanted to read something else. Eventually, we sent him to his room and his mom came and read him something else. So no stars from him. The niece thought this was a cool book and she gave this 5 stars. It does make you even more impressed how they were able to build this thing over many generations of people.
I start a project and I can’t wait to see the end result. These people started the project and they knew they would never see the end result. Amazing. They certainly left something for their families behind. They thought about the future, and it gave them a living wage for the present. Great story.
The book is long and its a story of putting together a cathedral from foundation to the spire. So, it’s not exciting storytelling, it’s interesting and amazing story telling. It is longish, about 20 minutes to read, so I would say this is for older children. I learned so much. I always wondered how those buildings were built and this book lays it out and it’s incredible. It is a special book. To me, making such great works with such simple tools always seemed like such a mystery. Seeing how they did it makes me in awe of them and I can see how they did it now and I’m more amazing by their will to build this.
This is a fictional building that took about 100 years to build, but it’s based off Notre Dame which took 200 years to build in reality.
The 8 year old likes fact books. This wasn’t so much a fact book, but she really got into this story and she was amazed by it. The 5 year old nephew was bored to tears. He wants to be a robot engineer, but he didn’t care for a building engineer at all. He kept complaining about how boring this was and he wanted to read something else. Eventually, we sent him to his room and his mom came and read him something else. So no stars from him. The niece thought this was a cool book and she gave this 5 stars. It does make you even more impressed how they were able to build this thing over many generations of people.
I start a project and I can’t wait to see the end result. These people started the project and they knew they would never see the end result. Amazing. They certainly left something for their families behind. They thought about the future, and it gave them a living wage for the present. Great story.