Crossing on Time
Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World
by David Macaulay
Roaring Brook Press, 2019. 128 pages.
Review written May 6, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review
This new large-format David Macaulay book is amazing. Full of his detailed illustrations, it tells the story of steam travel, combined with his own story of crossing the Atlantic and moving to America aboard what was then the fastest ocean liner in the world.
This story of his own family making the trip when he was ten years old gives a deeply personal touch to a book packed with historical facts.
After the short introduction of his family setting out to move to America, where he planned to see the Empire State Building, then the tallest building in the world, the book tells us the history of steam power. And since this is a David Macauley book, along every step of the way we get diagrams explaining precisely how the various steam engines worked. We can appreciate each new innovation and how it expanded on earlier ideas.
Then we get into steamships, and the race to build faster and faster ships to cross the Atlantic. We see all the ships that won the Blue Riband – an award for the ship with the fastest time crossing the Atlantic in the westward direction. We also hear about a shipbuilder who dreamed of winning that award.
And then we shift to that shipbuilder finally getting a chance to build an enormous ocean liner, the em> United States that would indeed win the Blue Riband. There is an incredible fold-out cross-section of United States that spreads out to six pages long and has 100 items detailed in the diagram.
The United States was the very ship that took young David Macauley and his family from England to America, so the book finishes bringing us back to his story. I especially like the paintings from their voyage and the photographs in the notes in the back.
This wonderful book is packed with information and leaves you with warm feelings about the curious kid who grew up to create amazing books.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/crossing_on_time.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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