Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial

Linda Booth Sweeney (Goodreads Author),

Shawn Fields (Illustrations)

4.31 · Rating details · 115 ratings · 46 reviews

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 ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 64 pages

Published September 3rd 2019 by Tilbury House Publishers

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Monument Maker, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Monument Maker

Lists with This Book

The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett

Planting Stories by Anika Aldamuy Denise

This Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Boyce

Juvenile & YA Nonfiction 2019 (Mock Sibert, 2020)

128 books — 23 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.31 ·

Rating details

· 115 ratings · 46 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial

Sep 20, 2019 Betsy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biographies, american-history, art, international-history, picture-book-non-fiction

Having a childlike sense of wonder is a double-edged sword. In my capacity as a reviewer of children’s books who left behind her kid years decades and decades ago, I pride myself on how well I can tap into my younger self when I read a book for that age range. But while it’s all well and good to cultivate a sense of childish wonder, being “childish” is the flip side of the coin. Take Monument Maker. Note the shiny Junior Library Guild “Gold Standard” stamp on the cover. Note the excellent review Having a childlike sense of wonder is a double-edged sword. In my capacity as a reviewer of children’s books who left behind her kid years decades and decades ago, I pride myself on how well I can tap into my younger self when I read a book for that age range. But while it’s all well and good to cultivate a sense of childish wonder, being “childish” is the flip side of the coin. Take Monument Maker. Note the shiny Junior Library Guild “Gold Standard” stamp on the cover. Note the excellent reviews it has received from professional journals. Now listen as the four-year-old inside me screams within my head at a raging pitch, “But I don’t wanna read it! I DON’T WANNA!!!” All this because the cover is a black and white image rendered in ink and graphite of the statue of an ex-president. The four-year-old is now claiming that the book is boring. The four-year-old hasn’t even read it yet, I point out. The four-year-old says it doesn’t have to. That she knows what it’s like already. But I am not actually four, so at lunchtime I sigh and take the book with me, and sit down to read it. In my job, such low expectations are a boon. Because when a book is as funny, smart, beautiful, and interesting as Monument Maker, you have a chance to remember that old adage about judging a book by its cover.

It wasn’t so much that Dan wasn’t good at anything. He’d done passably well studying law, but it wasn’t for him. He wasn’t top notch at algebra or geometry or physics, so after his schooling he worked the family farm, even though there just wasn’t much for him there. And then one day he found . . . a turnip. A really weird looking turnip. One where its funky shape allowed him to carve it into a dapper little frog in a top-notch suit. Dan left the frog on the kitchen table without much thought, but when his family saw it you would have thought he’d single handedly master minded the Magna Carta. Dan was actually GOOD at something!! And even better, it was something he wanted to get better at. The next thing you know he was studying anatomy. He was apprenticed to a sculptor in NYC. And when he entered a contest to celebrate the farmers who fought in the Revolutionary War, it was Dan’s statue that won. But it was the commission to create a new kind of statue of President Lincoln that required Dan to dig into his own personal past and come up with something that Americans everywhere could look up to and admire for once and all time.

“History shapes our lives. And what we do with our lives can shape history”. So reads the first sentence in Monument Maker. It is easy to ignore, either honestly or selectively, the monuments erected by our ancestors. A statue is as much a monument to past beliefs of who deserves to be idolized as it is the subject of the statue itself. In the news, you will hear of Confederate leaders and figures, their statues pulled to the ground in a effort to remind us that not everyone we physically look up to deserves that. On the flip side, statues like the one of John Henry in Talcott, West Virginia have been abused by racists for decades. No matter who it is you honor, someone will object. And much as statues have been called into question over the years, biographies of statues have been the subject of much scrutiny. You won’t find much to debate with any of the multitude of children’s books about the creation of the Statue of Liberty, but what about Mount Rushmore? In that case you have land taken from the Lakota people by the U.S. government without their consent. So often, these books about famous statues and monuments are cheerleading sections for America. Yet only the smartest authors think to include moments that hat tip problematic elements in their creation.

Is Monument Maker capable of complex thinking about the Lincoln Memorial? It’s an interesting question and it splits into two parts. On the one hand you have the text of the book and the text of the backmatter. On the other hand you have the illustrations. Determined to start with the text, I first looked to the author. Linda Booth Sweeney has written science and nature books for younger readers primarily, but there is one other book in her roster that caught my eye. The title Connected Wisdom: Living Stories About Living Systems seeks, according to its publisher’s description, the following: “If kids understand living systems, they're more likely to think and act in informed ways and less likely to jump to blame a single cause for the challenges they encounter.” So Sweeney is dedicated to introducing kids to the fact that the world is complex. And while I wouldn’t say that Monument Maker delves deep into the ramifications of creating a statue of Lincoln himself, it does take the time to think about the racial implications of its creation. For example, when discussing the actual physical labor of putting the statue together the book notes that “Just as America was built by many hands, so was the Lincoln Memorial. Blocks of white marble for Daniel’s statue were blasted and cut from a Georgia mountainside by the sons and grandsons of American slaves.” Those men stand front and center on that page for the reader. Later you see other black workers putting the monument together. Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama are all pictured in front of the monument later in the book. However, it’s a little after that that you read more information about the statue’s dedication ceremony. Sweeney notes where you would have sat that day if you were white and had a printed ticket. She then notes that you would have sat at an entirely different location if you’d been black. That’s right, there was a “colored section” at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. There was a sole black speaker slated for the day too but he was “forced to rewrite his speech when the Lincoln Memorial Commission determined that his call for racial justice was too radical.” A true writer of children’s history is unafraid to note horrible ironies, even while honoring the admirable parts of the past. Sweeney is a true writer in this very sense.

Oh. And it’s super fun to read. I’m sorry, did I bury the lede on that one? Remember my earlier kvetching about how much I didn’t want to read this black and white book? Well, the fact that it was fun helped loads. First off Sweeney makes Dan sympathetic right from the start. He’s in a family where everyone is a lawyer or a judge and he wants to be an artist? Then there’s his personality. The frog turnip is a keen detail as is the detail of him running a model, last minute, to the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson so as to enter the Minuteman contest. And like the best picture book biographies, the author is deftly interweaving elements of history into the context of the subject’s life. Rote bios focus on a person and never pull back that focus. Sweeney, however, starts with Dan, then pulls back to discuss how the family talked about the Civil War. After explaining what that was, and who Lincoln was, we see Dan’s contribution to that war. We pull back again when the president is assassinated then go back in to Dan reading myths and drawing gods and goddesses. Pull back again when they move to Concord and you can see the all-star line-up of his neighbors. Zero in again to him trying to find his way in the world. Do you see that? Sweeney is actually doing here what adult biographers do for their subjects, and the end result is all the stronger for it.

Now I’ve complained a little bit about the cover, and there’s good reason for that. No matter how many times I tell publishers, it is difficult for a librarian or bookseller to hand sell a black and white or sepia cover. Yeah yeah, Sarah Plain and Tall did all right back in the day, but that shiny Gold Newbery sticker was just about all the color it needed, wouldn’t you say? Plus, this cover looks like all those other monument and statue books. Often they’re perfectly fine, but it was be a huge stretch to call them exciting. Fortunately, this book has another Ace in its back pocket. A little something called illustrator Shawn Fields.

It was to my infinite surprise that I found that the man doesn’t appear to have done a picture book before. Norman Rockwellesque art galore, but little sequential art. I say this with surprise because Fields appears to have a natural talent for allowing the text and his art to work and flow together (part of this should be credited to the book’s art designer as well, for that matter). Now, again, when you have a rote picture book biography the temptation is to be very serious and staid with your realistic art. Creativity is often kept on a short leash (possibly in part because of the time constraints large publishers place on their artists). Fields, however, is capable of great grand shifts in perspective and attitude, sometimes within the same page. I admired his ability to turn the book from a horizontal read to a vertical one, when it meant gazing upon one statue or another. I loved his playfulness, as when the six Piccirilli brothers (the sons of Italian immigrants who carved Daniel’s art into stone) were rendered solely at the bottom of a page, the top halves of their heads popping up like Kirby. I loved how he would make scenes multicultural, like the image of families and soldiers hearing the news of Lincoln’s death, even if it wasn’t specified in the text. And most of all, I was very impressed by his ability to render some pictures with an almost cartoonish cast, and others with what sometimes almost amounted to photorealism on the page. Do I wish the book had been in color? I don’t. The cover, maybe, but the interior art, with all its cross-hatching and single-minded renderings, glows in black and white and gray.

When we say “Don’t judge a book by its cover” there should be a caveat attached. Maybe the amended injunction should be “Don’t judge every book by its cover.” We’re only human, after all. Sometimes, we’ll make mistakes. The mistake that you must avoid is judging this book on not just its cover but its subject matter as well. Rendered well, a truly great author could make reading the phone book an act of narrative thrust and zeal. As it turns out, Linda Booth Sweeney is a truly great author and Shawn Fields her uniquely talented partner in crime. Together, they’ve turned something as seemingly mundane as the act of creating the Lincoln Memorial into a true work of American history. It acknowledges the good, the bad, and the complicated. It makes no excuses, just hands over the facts. It avoids almost all fake dialogue and accounts for direct quotes in its backmatter. It’s a delight to read and remember. This marvelous book is deserving of your love. See to it that your love is worthy of it.

For ages 6-10. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2020 Brenda Kahn added it

Shelves: 2020-reading, artists, cybils-finalist, sculpture, picture-book-biography, memorials

Just seeing the title some months back made me put the book on my list to order and then my budget was frozen:-( Our eighth graders spend three days in DC as many schools do. As preparation for the trip, they have to create a tour guide containing information about the various sights in the city. I thought it might be a fun addition to my sixth grade picture book biography unit as well. Engaging and informative with wonderful illustrations and terrific back matter.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 04, 2020 Kate Willis rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, artists, picture-books

I picked this book up from the library, forgot completely about it, and then was quarantined with it and decided I should give it a try. ;) Very interesting illustrations and informative text, though it's likely a little on the complicated side for the youngest readers. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 10, 2019 Tatiana rated it really liked it

Shelves: kids-nonfiction, kids-picture-books

I love the Lincoln Memorial. I love the walk up to it beside the Reflecting Pool. I love the pearly steps and the magnitude. I love looking out from the top, seeing the Washington Monument, a full panorama of the National Mall, and the Capitol beyond. It's one of my favorite destinations in D.C. Yet until this book, I had never heard of Daniel Chester French, the man who made Lincoln larger than life.

At first, I was surprised by the book's heft. Surely it wouldn't take 60+ pages to describe how ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2019 Laura Gardner rated it really liked it

Daniel Chester French designed many monuments in his lifetime, including the iconic Lincoln Memorial. This book chronicles the life of the artist. Born to a family of lawyers, Daniel had to chart his own path when it became obvious he was interested in something different. His connection to Lincoln and artistic process in creating the sculpture is explored in depth. Daniel was only fourteen years old when Lincoln was assassinated and it loomed large in his memory. Beautiful black and white illus ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2020 Kyla rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction

I found this book on the 2020 list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. This book was named 2020 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year. I read this digitally on Epic and was able to see the illustrations very well.

This book tells the story of Dan French who was the sculptor that created the Lincoln Memorial. The book starts with Dan as a small child and how he struggles to find what he wants to do growing up. When he finally discovers his love for art and sculpting he ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2019 Jaime rated it it was amazing

Wow! The illustrations are so beautiful. Such an interesting topic. I’m impressed.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 16, 2019 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: art, history, biography, families, friendship, imagination, jobs, presidents, community, facing-fears

While the cover of this book might not attract young readers due to its lack of color as is the case for the drawings inside, created painstakingly with ink pens, they really work well for this story of a man who sculpted various shapes and was responsible for the Lincoln Memorial. While young eyes might long for color, it really wouldn't work for this particular story describing the evolution of Daniel Chester French from a boy growing up on a farm in New Hampshire to a young man learning how t ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 04, 2019 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library-book, juvenile-nonfiction

Very impressive information. I really enjoyed not only the completeness of the story (without getting the juvenile reader bogged down with unnecessary information), but the illustrations were fantastic.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2019 Erin Buhr rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-books, kids-nonfiction

The Lincoln Memorial is one of my favorites. There is no escaping the larger than life awe that it inspires, yet I had never thought much about Daniel Chester French or how this masterpiece was created before this book. Hefty, I believe, is the best way to describe this biography. It is a thick picture book and although the information is fascinating to a history buff this is not a book to pull out at your average story hour or bedtime. That being said, for a kid who is interested in history, so ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2020 Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* rated it really liked it

Shelves: elementary, middle-school, non-fiction, picture-book, essential

Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial by Linda Booth Sweeney, illustrated by Shawn Fields. 64 pages. NON-FICTION/ PICTURE BOOK Tilbury House Publishers, 2019. $20. 9780884486435

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS – ESSENTIAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Daniel grew up among lawyers and judges, but when he tried to go to school he had trouble with his math subjects and found himself working on the family farm. One day, Dan found a funny looking turnip and decided to carve it into a frog ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 23, 2019 Reshamad rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens-nonfiction, cybils-2019

Large Picture book biography of Daniel Chester French who sculpted the Lincoln memorial. Beautifully illustrated, nicely paced telling of Daniels biography. Well researched and chronicled. Recommend reading this for all age groups. While there is an interesting, lesser known biography of a personality captured here, it also tells of a personality who struggled in school until he found his calling through art and sculpture. Would be a great introduction for children who are looking for different ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 16, 2019 Sandy Brehl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: early-mg, language-development, geography, history, teaching-resource, anecdote-bio, pb-non-fiction, curiosity, picture-book, mg

The Lincoln Memorial may be the most iconic of the MANY iconic monuments in Washington, D. C. When a commitment was made to create the monument, decision-makers at the highest levels shared the responsibility to find exactly the right person to execute the statue of Lincoln. This oversized, extra-long picture book is a masterful creation that rises to the levels of excellence that were expected of the sculptor, the architects, and the other artists who contributed to this timeless memorial. Both ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2019 Martha Trzepacz rated it it was amazing

What a wonderful book, a real gem about an important part of American history. This is truly an American story. Follow Daniel French's path from farm boy to famous sculptor. This remarkable American really deserves more attention. Unfortunately, if the book remains in the children's section few adults will read it. The illustrations and information at the end really beg for future reading. Don't miss this one ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 25, 2020 Lynn added it

This is terrific book! I first saw it listed on a Goodreads review and I've been waiting impatiently for it to become available on my public library's inter library loan service.It was so worth the wait and it is really sad that more libraries in my system haven't purchased this.

So many of us have been fortunate enough to visit the Lincoln Memorial and be awed by the moving sculpture of Lincoln. But how many of us know anything about either the sculptor or the other extraordinary artists who cre This is terrific book! I first saw it listed on a Goodreads review and I've been waiting impatiently for it to become available on my public library's inter library loan service.It was so worth the wait and it is really sad that more libraries in my system haven't purchased this.

So many of us have been fortunate enough to visit the Lincoln Memorial and be awed by the moving sculpture of Lincoln. But how many of us know anything about either the sculptor or the other extraordinary artists who created the memorial?

Linda Sweeney remedies that in this fascinating book the combines a biography of sculptor Daniel Chester French with an excellent explanation of the process of creating the memorial. She marries the two stories very well with interesting and informative writing. Sweeney tells both stories in language that will be easily understood by young readers and yet manages at the same time to craft both a complicated technical process and a real sense of this remarkable artist and his artistic journey. I really appreciated the introduction of the other artists who were involved in the monument.

She is greatly aided by the illustrator, Shawn Fields, whose pencil and ink illustrations are wonderfully expressive and full of excellent details. Fields's use of perspective adds so much and he takes full advantage of the large size of the book itself. Some of the illustrations are series of small sketches illustrating a process and some are large, spilling over two pages with great effect. One of my favorites is of French's first sculpture, The Minuteman, that stands in Concord. The reader has to turn the book vertically and the illustration is a really stunning depiction of the statue that takes up 2/3 of the page when some important viewers pictured at the bottom. I also loved the illustration of French standing on a scaffold in front of the in-process sculpture and the opposing page showing an sketch of the various pieces of sculpted stone being put together like a giant puzzle.

The back matter here is really outstanding. There is an extensive timeline about Daniel French that provides much additional information about him and his career. There is an Author's Note and additional articles, Dan the Maker and one about the history of the Lincoln Memorial. There is a list of locations of French's work, a list of resources and some specific places to visit. One I am definitely adding to my travel list is French's home and studio, Chesterwood!

Scattered throughout the book are historic and current photographs. This one is not to be missed. ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 04, 2020 V rated it it was amazing

Shelves: t, 2020t

Mom's Review
Monument Maker came through our house because of the Cybils Awards. Had I not been a judge, I would have passed it over. The cover is grey and shows the Lincoln Memorial – not particularly eye-catching or exciting. I would have glanced at it and thought, "Huh. Don't really want to read about the Lincoln Memorial." And that would have been a mistake.

Monument Maker isn't a story about the Lincoln Memorial itself, but about the man who designed it. One really ought to read subtitles. D Mom's Review
Monument Maker came through our house because of the Cybils Awards. Had I not been a judge, I would have passed it over. The cover is grey and shows the Lincoln Memorial – not particularly eye-catching or exciting. I would have glanced at it and thought, "Huh. Don't really want to read about the Lincoln Memorial." And that would have been a mistake.

Monument Maker isn't a story about the Lincoln Memorial itself, but about the man who designed it. One really ought to read subtitles. Daniel Chester French was a boy who loved to be outside and draw or sculpt. (Once he and his brother sculpted a huge lion out of snow that scared the neighbors.) As a young man, he continued to pursue his passion for sculpture, particularly when his study of law didn't work out. He studied drawing and sculpture, quickly making a name for himself as a sculptor. French's story is really well written; T and I didn't want to put it down. At times, the story is exciting and suspenseful; other parts showed events we identified with. French was likable. His family was loving and supportive. He followed his dream. That makes for good content. Sweeney's word craft made for great reading.

I sure was wrong to judge Monument Maker by its cover! It turned out to be a compelling and enjoyable picture book biography. By the end, I even appreciated how the marble tones of the cover are appropriate to the topic. T and I had fun reading about a real person, were fascinated to learn how large sculptures are created, and were tickled to see places we know appear as important historic locations.

Biography buffs, artists-in-the-making, and New Englanders will especially enjoy Monument Maker, but I encourage any readers to not overlook this hidden gem.

The intended age has been listed as 8-12, though I'd probably label it 5-12.

Son's Review
(Age when reviewing: 4)
I liked it. I liked how he made that statue, how he sent them in pieces because I've never heard of that. I felt all the feelings [while reading]. I felt angry because of the war and sad that Lincoln died.

Note: A review copy was provided in conjunction with judging the Cybils. ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 18, 2020 Linda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: everyage, picture-books-2020, multi-cultural-2020, non-fiction-2020, read-2020

With Shawn Fields' marvelous pen and ink sketches, Linda Booth Sweeney tells this story of a boy who grew up on a farm, then small towns in Massachusetts who became a famous sculptor whose work can be found in many places, foremost in our capitol. He didn't do well in school, loved being out in nature observing and drawing birds. The story shares that one time he carved a turnip into a frog and his parents noticed his talent as he discovered what he was going to do in his life. He did different ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 06, 2020 Ben Truong rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, history, picture-books, childrens

Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial is a children's picture book written by Linda Booth Sweeney and illustrated by Shawn Fields. It chronicles the story of Bessie Daniel Chester French – the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial.

Daniel Chester French, one of the most prolific and acclaimed American sculptors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is best known for his design of the monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC.

S ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 15, 2020 Gabi rated it it was amazing

This book hooked me with its opening lines: "History shapes our lives. And
what we do with our lives can shape history." When I visited Washington DC, I had only a few precious minutes to spend admiring the larger-than-life Lincoln Memorial. But it moved me. And learning about its creator in Sweeney's thoughtful book moved me, too. Kids (and adults) will sympathize with Daniel Chester French. As a child and young adult, Dan liked making things beautiful. But he didn't enjoy school and he didn't w ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 20, 2020 Stephanie Bange rated it it was amazing

A fantastic add for arts programs

informational picture book about Daniel Chester French, the sculptor of the iconic statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits in the Lincoln Memorial and many others around the United States.

Sweeney's text reads like a story, very casual, yet informative. The reader will come away from this feeling like they know the man. Shawn Fields uses two distinct art techniques - one that looks like paintings (these are mostly of statues and of children of today who are "listening ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 22, 2020 Maura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hugh-read, picture-book-historical

His tribute to the tall, gaunt, noble man who held America together when no one else could have was the crowning achievement of a boy who loved to make beautiful things.

Absolutely stunning, informative, engaging, all-around wonderful book about this boy who loved to make beautiful things, illustrated beautifully by Shawn Fields. My 6 year old son was riveted throughout all 64 pages, including back matter with photographs. Shawn Fields' drawings throughout were just fascinating, and my son and I ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 31, 2020 Lois rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography

I never heard of Daniel Chester French until I read this true story. As a child, he enjoyed drawing, but it wasn't until he was college age that he taught himself to sculpt. He created the Minuteman statue in his hometown of Concord, MA, and more than a hundred other monuments in his lifetime including the Abraham Lincoln monument at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Linda Booth Sweeney's middle-grade text is easy to read. Her research produced extensive back matter revealing more informa ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 14, 2020 Mackenzie Black marked it as cvtc-kidlit

Have you ever been to visit the Lincoln Memorial? If you have you probably will remember how large and beautiful it looked. Well, did you know that you have Daniel Chester French to thank! Linda Sweeney does a wonderful job explaining the rich history behind one America's most talented artists (at least in my opinion).
I enjoyed the illustrations, I think they did a wonderful job depicting what is going on in the story. This would be a fun book to do for a storytime. You wouldn't be able to do as ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 20, 2020 Sara Fajardo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Beautifully told biography that offers both the life story of Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who gave us the Lincoln Monument, and the historical context to understand the relevance of the time he lived. Small details such as Chester's brother also went off to war and quotes from famous neighbors help cement us in time and place. The influences on his life are palpable as is the thrill of his discovering his innate talents. Black and white textured illustrations provide an organic feel that ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 09, 2020 Teresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-s-lit, biography

Monument Maker is the fascinating and moving story of the man who created the statue in the Lincoln Memorial (among many other sculptures). I’d heard of the name Daniel Chester French associated with the various monuments but I didn’t know anything about him. This beautifully illustrated book fills in many of the details that one would want to know about this talented artist. Extensive back matter supplies even more information for anyone who wants to dig a bit deeper.

flag Like · see review

May 14, 2020 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrensbio, childrensnonfiction

I didn't think I was going to like this book, but it ended up being most interesting. This is the story of the life of Daniel Chester French, the designer and sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial. He took on this project when he was 65 and completed it when he was 72.

A most interesting read! Also, I would give this to a child who is struggling with what is expected of them. French forged his own path and he ended up doing great things! ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 12, 2020 Beth rated it liked it

Shelves: cybils, picture-book, cybils-2019, biography

As a picture book, this biography felt a little text-heavy, but not to an extreme. The back matter was rich and rewarding, bringing in details (I was wondering about his mom!) and also resources such as a list of where to find French's other sculptures (not near me). I liked the emphasis on how he moved from failed student to successful artist, and I thought the illustrations conveyed the message and emotions really well. ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 16, 2021 Tracey rated it really liked it

This book is beautifully executed. (I especially loved how the orientation of the book at key moments switches to portrait orientation.) It tells the story of Daniel Chester French, how he came to be a sculptor, and, eventually, the sculptor of the Lincoln statue in the Lincoln memorial. At the back of the book, there is more detailed information (quite a number of pages!) about the sculptor and the Lincoln Memorial.

flag Like · see review

Mar 14, 2020 Michael Deschenes rated it it was amazing

Very engaging book about Daniel Chester French for young readers. But older readers will enjoy it as well. The illustrations coupled with the text tell the tale of an artist who truly loved his craft and created some beautiful works. For more scholarly book on French, Holzer's Monument Man is another wise choice. But for a great intro to the man and his works, this book is ideal. ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 28, 2020 Susan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: picture-books, pb-bio, nonfiction

As a Massachusetts native, I'm very familiar with Daniel Chester French's iconic Minuteman statue, but I wasn't familiar with the story behind the statue and the artist. This book offers a fascinating look at French and his work on the Minuteman statue, the Lincoln Memorial, and other monuments around the world. It also weaves in social justice themes. ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 next »