The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The story of a daring tightrope walk between skyscrapers, as seen in Robert Zemeckis's The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In 1974, French aerialist Philippe Petit threw a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center and spent an hour walking, dancing, and performing high-wire tricks a quarter mile in the sky. This picture book captures the poetry and magic of the event with a poetry of its own: lyrical words and lovely paintings that present the detail, daring, and--in two dramatic foldout spreads-- the vertiginous drama of Petit's feat.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is the winner of the 2004 Caldecott Medal, the winner of the 2004 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Picture Books, and the winner of the 2006 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video.

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 09/05/2003
Pages: 44
Weight: 0.8lbs
Size: 11.10h x 8.10w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780761317913
Age: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3.7
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 77196 / Man Who Walked Between the Towers


Award: Caldecott Medal - Winner
Award: Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards - Winner
Award: Carnegie Medal - Winner
Award: Delaware Diamonds Award - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 08/01/2003 pg. 1017
Publishers Weekly 09/01/2003 pg. 89
Booklist 11/01/2003 pg. 498
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2003 pg. 763
School Library Journal 11/01/2003 pg. 125
Kirkus Review - Children 12/01/2003 pg. 1403
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 12/01/2003 pg. 152 - Book Of Special Distinction
SLJ's Best Books 12/01/2003 pg. 46
New York Times 11/16/2003 pg. 31
New York Times 12/07/2003 pg. 86
ALA Notable Children's Books 03/15/2004 pg. 1291
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2003 pg. 177 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2004 pg. 177 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style
School Library Journal 10/01/2004

About the Author

Mordicai Gerstein is the author and illustrator of The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, winner of the Caldecott Medal, and has had four books named New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year. Gerstein was born in Los Angeles in 1935. He remembers being inspired as a child by images of fine art, which his mother cut out of Life magazine, and by children's books from the library: I looked at Rembrandt and Superman, Matisse and Bugs Bunny, and began to make my own pictures.

He attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and then got a job in an animated cartoon studio that sent him to New York, where he designed characters and thought up ideas for TV commercials. When a writer named Elizabeth Levy asked him to illustrate a humorous mystery story about two girls and a dog, his book career began, and soon he moved on to writing as well as illustrating. The author of more than forty books, Gerstein lived in Westhampton, Massachusetts.