WHEN PLAYING with the idea of a children's book on building, I moved to California. In downtown Oakland I found five construction sites full of cement mixers and back hoes and hammering. I spent a month hanging out down there, watching and sketching. I think a lot of the workers wondered what I was doing. I also worked a few days at an Oakland Habitat for Humanity building site to get a better feel for construction. It was exhausting. I drilled holes for electrical fixtures in two houses and I'm still worried that I did it all wrong.

I love the progression of building. How it starts with an idea and a piece of land, and then months of sawdust and sweat and bent nails later, something is standing. This book is about that process. It follows the life of one building.

REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly 3.15.99
"Cooper's latest sketchbook strikes his signature pleasing balance between the factual and the whimsical . . . Smoothly planting technical terms and techniques alongside a layperson's detailed observations, Cooper constructs a cheerful tribute to a significant accomplishment."

The New York Times 6.18.99
"Here, in a small, pleasant-to- hold book, is a detailed account of a different kind of project. It tells how a vacant lot near an urban downtown was transformed by the construction of a modest building. It is illustrated with airy, impressionistic watercolors. There are a few unclear steps, but the anecdotes and the glimpses of the workmen are charming."

Kirkus 3.15.99
"Cooper once again takes a familiar sight and infuses it with a squiggly magic as he ebulliently illustrates how a vacant lot is transformed by construction . . . Readers will come away with a real understanding of how a building comes into existence."

One of the ten best children's books of 1999.
— Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

Bologna Ragazzi Award, Honorable Mention. Bologna Children's Book Fair, 2000

Published by:
Greenwillow (HarperCollins) 1999
ISBN 0-688-16494-3 $16