Review of "1 2 3 I Can Build!"

Having read 1 2 3 I Can Build! for analysis in a children's literature course in college, I would like to share my opinions of this book designed to introduce young kids to the concept of architecture.

1 2 3 I Can Build! is a brilliant children's book that shows the young readers how to build crafty and colorful projects. Along the way, architectural terms are explained in brief and teachers and parents are given a heads up on how they can make these and other projects exciting for kids. As I am quite familiar with architecture, I found this book both educational and highly entertaining.

In evaluating this book, I first looked to see how recently it was made. Having been published in 2009, 1 2 3 is an up-to-date book about a timeless topic that, nevertheless, has seen changes over the years. The parents' and teachers' section refers to how mistakes have helped some architects discover new building methods. Though the reference is unspecific, the bridge collapse in Minnesota and the fall of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks have helped architects and scientists understand more about how to improve engineering techniques to mitigate the chances of such losses in the future.

This book is very organized and well laid out for the reader. Colorful photographs, large-point type, step-by-step instructions, and clear and concise language make each project easy to follow and complete. All of the language is geared for a reading audience in the early grades. Any new words are clearly explained using terms and relative ideas that most children can understand.

While 1 2 3 lacks a formal glossary, it does have a brief index in the rear of the book which guides readers to the dozen or so terms that are explained throughout the piece. While I would have liked to have seen a basic glossary, perhaps the author viewed this as redundant since it is quite easy to locate each term in the book, even without the index.

Among the few drawn illustrations in the book are sporadic, cute, racially indistinct outline sketches of little boys and girls doing random tasks throughout the whole of the work. The fact that both boys and girls are seen doing construction tasks is quite progressive and should allay any concerns that this book may portray construction as "boy's work."

Being a craft book, it is presumed the author must have either tried each project out before including it or, likely, referred to Stacey Roderick and Karen Powers - two women to whom Luxbacher pays gratitude at the end of the book. No bibliography is present, though any terms that are described are annotated with brief definitions that more or less could be classified as general information.

The book utilizes a generous amount of white space, which looks quite appealing with the bold colors of the photographs contained on each page. Headers are clear and distinguished by bold print and larger point than the text body on each page. Sidebars and boxes are absent from the book, though thanks to the layout of text upon the page, the lack of such devices seems unnecessary here and does not detract from the readability of the book.

Overall, 1 2 3 I Can Build! is a very attractive book filled (but not overstuffed) with clear visual aids, colorful illustrations, concise and entertaining text, and includes about a dozen or so ideas for children, parents, and teachers to use. As a fan of architecture, such a book would have definitely appealed to me decades ago had it existed when I was a child, and I am confident that children would find this book fun and parents would deem it instructional to enriching children's awareness of architecture and craftwork.

Resources

My reading of 1 2 3 I Can Build!, Luxbacher, I. Kids Can Press, Ltd., 2003.