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Monument Maker

CLASSROOM GUIDE

Junior Library Guild Selection
Cybils Awards Shortlist (Elementary Nonfiction)
A Best Children’s Book of 2019—Bank Street College of Education
A 2019 Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read”

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, fifteen-year-old Dan French had no way to know that one day his tribute to the great president would transform a plot of Washington, DC marshland into America’s gathering place. He did not even know that a sculptor was something to be. He only knew that he liked making things with his hands.

This is the story of how a farmboy became America’s foremost sculptor. After failing at academics, Dan was working the family farm when he idly carved a turnip into a frog and discovered what he was meant to do. Sweeney’s swift prose and Fields’s evocative illustrations capture the single-minded determination with which Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.

This is also the story of the Lincoln Memorial, French’s culminating masterpiece. Thanks to this lovingly created tribute to the towering leader of Dan’s youth, Abraham Lincoln lives on as the man of marble, his craggy face and careworn gaze reminding millions of seekers what America can be. Dan’s statue is no lifeless figure, but a powerful, vital touchstone of a nation’s ideals. Now Dan French has his tribute too, in this exquisite biography that brings history to life for young readers.
STARRED REVIEW - Booklist

“Beautifully illustrated and inspiring.” - Youth Services Book Review

“This marvelous book is deserving of your love. See to it that your love is worthy of it.” - Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production, an SLJ blog

“The environment that nurtured Daniel Chester French is given loving treatment by Sweeney and Fields. Sculptor French was a largely self-taught artist when he fashioned the embattled farmer that stands in Concord, Massachusetts, to commemorate the opening salvoes of the American Revolution. The work made French's name a household word, but he had plenty of experience with art before that. As Sweeney ably tells his story, French loved the outdoors, where he would sketch birds and the like. He tended the family farm, working his artistry into the plowing of the fields and repairs to the fences and outbuildings. Having grown up during the Civil War, he was influenced by the event and its idealistic aspects, especially those espoused by his Transcendentalist neighbors. As Sweeney traces French's way in the world, French goes on to create numerous statues of Civil War heroes, including the epic sculpture of Abraham Lincoln enshrined in his memorial. A timeline and author's note fill in various gaps in the text, and Fields' drawings are both powerful and graceful, just as French would have wanted, depicting a largely white cast but including some figures of color, including one of the two modern children who observe the story. They are modeled in color while French and his times are represented in vigorously crosshatched black and white. Both bracing and winning, a fine tribute to the sculptor and his world. (Picture book biography. 8-12) ” - Kirkus Reviews

Linda Booth Sweeney is a truly great author and Shawn Fields her uniquely talented partner in crime. Together, they’ve turned something as seemingly mundane as the act of creating the Lincoln Memorial into a true work of American history. It acknowledges the good, the bad, and the complicated. It makes no excuses, just hands over the facts. It avoids almost all fake dialogue and accounts for direct quotes in its backmatter. It’s a delight to read and remember. This marvelous book is deserving of your love. - Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal Blog, FUSE8Production

• To whom would you recommend this book? Students who are interested in art will find this interesting. • Anything you didn’t like about it? No. It’s beautifully illustrated and inspiring! • Who should buy this book? Elementary and middle school libraries • Where would you shelve it? nonfiction - Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Dartmouth, MAhttps://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/monument-maker-daniel-chester-french-and-the-lincoln-memorial-linda-booth-sweeney-illustrated-by-sha, Youth Services Book Review

"This new release book is the perfect history lesson and fascinating biography of Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who created the Lincoln Memorial. Daniel was just a farm boy until creation of the Lincoln Memorial, so perhaps your children know of the memorial but do they know Daniel Chester French? Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. Now history, of a man assassinated, lives on with a rich history non-fiction story for children and how you never know when your gift will become something this amazing. After all, he was just sculpting for the love of sculpting and had no idea his masterpiece would become such a national tribute visited by so many to come." - Erin Sluka, Parenting Healthy

"VERDICT A good, simple biography on a lesser-known creator of a very famous landmark." - Elizabeth Nicolai, Anchorage Public Library, AK, School Library Journal