May 2, 2004

Willow Glen Elementary students meet award-winning author

By Carol Rosen
Editor

On a sunny afternoon in late April, when most children are thinking about running around outside, two classes from Willow Glen Elementary School walked over to Hicklebees to meet Caldecott Medal winner Mordecai Gerstein. The children were enthusiastic about meeting and talking with the author, but their demeanor was both quiet and respectful and far outclassed many adult author readings.

The students were from Mike Broxmeyer’s second and third grade class and from Donna Dean’s fourth grade classroom. Their attention was all on the author, who also deserves a bow for treating the children with such kindness and fun.

Gerstein’s award-winning book, “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers,” which he wrote and illustrated, is a true story about a Frenchman who walked a cable between the two World Trade Center towers toward the end of the construction period. It describes getting the reel of cable to the roof of one tower, attaching the cable to the other tower and walking across. It talks about the feeling of being so high in the air on a thin, little cable.
It’s a very interesting book.

Gerstein spent the initial part of the session explaining about illustrations and drawing. Talking about imagination, he took a page of a large drawing book, creased it to resemble a cave wall and drew a buffalo. “Drawing,” he said, “is a way to let out magic and to let people see it.”

He also used a piece of rope taped to the floor and allowed some of the children to pretend they were walking a tightrope high in the air. Then he read the book and described a meeting he had with the tightrope walker. While the writing came fast, using newspapers and other materials from the New York Public Library, it took six to seven months to do the illustrations, Gerstein said, and a number of drawings for each illustration.

For example, “I did 30 drawings when Phillipe was on the high wire. It’s necessary to make sure that I get everything at the right angle.”

After Gerstein’s presentation, the students presented him with a banner drawn just like the cover and signed by all the fourth grade students. The second/third graders presented him with a book they had all written describing their dreams.