LIBERTY ARRIVES!

Lady Liberty’s arrival almost didn’t
happen.

Intended as a 100th-birthday gift from
France, the statue was the brainchild of a French judge who envisioned a symbol
of friendship between the two nations and hired sculptor Frederic-Auguste
Bartholdi to create it. After choosing its New York Harbor site, he fashioned
numerous, ever larger models and chose copper for its light weight. Alexandre-Gustave
Eiffel devised an “iron skeleton” to support Liberty, and then the completed
statue was exhibited in Paris; parts of it had already been shown in the States. A
pedestal was designed—with no funds to build it. Nonetheless, Bartholdi had the
statue’s pieces shipped in crates to America nine years after the centennial.
Finally, Joseph Pulitzer successfully encouraged Americans to donate; Emma
Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” was initially written as a fundraiser. In a
crowded field, Byrd’s signature narrative and artistic styles elevate this
effort. Pages with type set in newspaperlike double columns feature outsized,
capitalized headlines and datelines denoting years and places. Spreads include
masterly ink-and-watercolor illustrations with details that invite readers to
pore over artwork. The author’s awestruck writing, featuring punchy, taut
sentences, makes for fast-paced reading, as do dramatic page turns, and it
emphasizes the grandeur of the enterprise; fascinating, quirky facts abound. In
most illustrations, persons default white.

A book worthy of the statue
herself. (measurements, timeline, facts about the statue and historical
figures, author’s note, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-11)