The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

After the attacks of September 11 there was a movement to try and explain the events to young children in the format of picture books.  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Moricai Gerstein is one of those books; however, it does not focus on the fate of the Twin Towers.  Rather, it focuses on a time when the Towers brought a sense of wonder to the world!

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers won the Caldecott Medal in 2004.  You know it is a good book when it wins the Caldecott!  The story is based on a true event!  In 1974 Philippe Petit, a French aerialist, decided he had to tightrope walk between the Twin Towers.  He asked the Towers' owners for permission, but he was denied.  However, this was not enough to stop him.  He disguised himself as a construction worker and climbed his way to the top of the Towers.  After reaching the top, he strung wire between the Towers and began his amazing feet!  

This is a joyful story about the Twin Towers.  Your child will be amazed this is a true story!  

This is a great book to work on building schema (background knowledge) and creating inferences.  Many children have heard of the Twin Towers and know they were destroyed, but many do not know the excitement the Towers created when they were being built.  This book provides readers the opportunity to share in the magic of the Twin Towers.  This is also a great book for creating inferences.  To make an inference, the reader must take his/her own background knowledge and pair it with clues from the text.  There are many opportunities in this story to predict what might happen next!

Some questions to guide your thinking conversation:

1.  Read the first page of text.  Stop and ask your child:  How tall do you think the buildings were?  Use some landmarks your child might be familiar with to help them understand how tall the Towers were.  


2.  Read to  "Maybe if I dressed as a construction worker..."  and ask your child:  What do you predict is going to happen next?


3.  Read to "Then they carried everything up one hundred and eighty stairs to the roof" and stay to your child: Wow!  That is a lot of steps!  Do you think you could climb 180 stairs and carry 440 pounds?  What does this say about Phillippe?


4.  Read to "It was seven-eighths of an inch thick" and ask your child: How big do you think seven-eighths of an inch is?  Put your index finger and middle finger together and show you child what an inch looks like?  Would you walk on a rope that skinny so high up in the air?  How do you think Pillippe feels?  


5.  Read to "Police Saw it, too." and ask your child:  What would you have done if you were there?


6.  Read to the end of the story and ask your child:  Why do you think the author wrote this book?