The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

Summary: This is a true story of a young man who believes in his dreams of tight rope walking from one Twin Tower to the other. He embraces perseverance and doing what it took to reach a goal. The end of the story mentions that the Twin Towers are no longer there.

Bib Info: Gerstein, M. (2003). The man who walked between the towers. Brookfield, CT: Roaring Brook Press.

Interest Level: K-3

Impression: This story teaches about reaching one’s dreams and working hard to achieve them. The illustrations in the story are captivating and the way the book is written is poetic.

Reviews and Awards: 2004 Caldecott Medal, 2004 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Picture Books

Reviews: PreS-Gr. 3. Here's a joyful true story of the World Trade Center from a time of innocence before 9/11. In 1974 French trapeze artist Philippe Petit walked a tightrope suspended between the towers before they were completed. Gerstein's simple words and dramatic ink-and-oil paintings capture the exhilarating feats, the mischief, and the daring of the astonishing young acrobat. He knew his plan was illegal, so he dressed as a construction worker, and, with the help of friends, lugged a reel of cable up the steps during the night and linked the buildings in the sky. As dawn broke, he stepped out on the wire and performed tricks above the city. Gerstein uses varied perspectives to tell the story--from the close-up jacket picture of one foot on the rope to the fold-out of Petit high above the traffic, swaying in the wind. Then there's a quiet view of the city skyline now, empty of the towers, and an astonishing image of the tiny figure high on the wire between the ghostly buildings we remember.
[Review of the book The man who walked between the two towers by M. Gerstein]. (2003, November 1). Booklist, 107, 19. Retrieved from: http://www.booklistonline.com/

"Once there were two towers side by side.... The tallest buildings in New York City." Another September 11 book? No -- and yes. Gerstein's story takes place in 1974, when the World Trade Towers' construction wasn't quite finished. Philippe Petit, the French street performer and high-wire walker, couldn't resist the temptation to dance between the twin towers. "Once the idea came to him he knew he had to do it! If he saw three balls, he had to juggle. If he saw two towers, he had to walk! That's how he was." Gerstein is in top form, pulling the reader into his story with a conversational style extended by playful pen and paint illustrations. Like Petit, Gerstein conceals much careful planning behind an obvious enjoyment of his subject. As the book starts, rectangular paintings are set well inside the edge of each white page. When Philippe and his co-conspirators, disguised as construction workers, toil through the night setting up the wire, the area between the illustrations' borders and the edge of the page fills with a gray-blue wash, providing the visual equivalent of foreboding background music. As dawn breaks and Philippe gets ready to step onto the wire, the blue fades away. Now we're ready to be exhilarated and terrified -- and on two successive foldout pages, we are. The first heart-stopping image shows Philippe from above as he moves to the middle of the wire. The tiny buildings below him seem terrifyingly distant while on the far right his destination, the top of the tower, is shown with exaggerated perspective, taking our eye down, down, and off the bottom of the page. Next we see the same scene from the ground with the book turned on its side. People on the street look up in surprise and fear while a cop calls for assistance. The denouement takes us back to solid ground and back to the rectangle-on-white illustrations. Philippe is arrested, as we knew he would be, but the kindly judge sentences him to perform in Central Park. Finally, the last pages bring us to the present ("Now the towers are gone"), showing the current empty skyscape. "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there." And so they are on the last page, translucent against the clouds, with a tiny Philippe on his wire connecting the towers to each other and the past to the present.
[Review of the book The man who walked between the two towers by M. Gernstein]. (2003, November/December). Horn Book. Retrieved from: http://www.hbook.com/

Use in library setting: This story is also available in video format. The book and video can be used for a compare and contrast activity.