Going, K. L. The Shape of the World: A Portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright. Illustrated by Lauren Stringer. Beach Lane Books, 2017. 32 pages (978–1–4424–7821–3)

Ages 5-9

“When the baby grew into a boy, his mother gave him gifts: cubes, spheres, cones, pyramids, cylinders. The boy loved the smooth shapes.” Young Frank Lloyd Wright builds with his blocks as a child, and, during summers on his uncle’s farm (near Spring Green, Wisconsin), “He saw shapes everywhere he looked. He found an arch inside the pathway of a frog, a cone inside the petals of a flower … ” This picture book look at Wright emphasizes the fascination with geometric shapes and love for the natural world that permeated his singular, brilliant career as an architect. “When other architects chose walls, he chose windows. … He built a house like a honeycomb, a museum like a shell … ” It is Wright’s work, rather than the sometimes difficult aspects of his personality, that takes center stage in this appreciative, accessible, gracefully illustrated account. ©2018 Cooperative Children’s Book Center