Let There Be Light: A Book About Windows

by James Cross Giblin

Surveys the development of windows from prehistory to the modern era.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History

162 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

James Cross Giblin was an American children's author and editor, known for his award-winning works. He won the Golden Kite Award and the Sibert Medal for his contributions to children's literature. Giblin was born in Cleveland and raised in Painesville, Ohio. He graduated from Western Reserve University and earned a master's in playwriting from Columbia University. After a brief acting career, he entered publishing, founding Clarion Books, a children's imprint later acquired by Houghton Mifflin. At Clarion, he edited works by notable authors like Eileen Christelow and Mary Downing Hahn. Giblin’s works include The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler and Good Brother, Bad Brother.

Reviews

[Rebecca]

Giblin explores the history of windows, from pre-history to the late 1980s, when the book was published (it starts, rather eerily, with him looking out his apartment windows at sunlight on the windows of the twin towers in NYC). He covers non-glass windows, early methods of making glass, stained glass, how glass fits into various forms of architecture (cathedrals, houses, skyscrapers, etc.), and modern improvements to glass.

I always enjoy micro-histories, and particularly appreciated that this one covered non-glass windows as well as glass ones. I didn't know, for example, that the Inuit allowed light into their igloos by using blocks of freshwater ice in places. I would have liked to have learned more about windows in vehicles--what exactly is isinglass, for instance--but overall, for a middle school book, it had pretty broad coverage.

[Naomi]

This is an interesting book about the history of windows from the earliest windows to modern windows.

[Kathleen]

Raymond Public Library