Built to last / Minh Lê ; [illustrated by] Dan Santat.

Title :

Built to last

Author:

Lê, Minh, 1979-

Format:

Books

Summary:

Every creation two friends build together end up tumbling down, except their friendship.

Language:

English

Audience:

Ages 3-7. Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN - ISSN:

9780593569177

0593569172

9780593569184

0593569180

Physical Description:

pages cm

Subject:

Friendship -- Fiction.

Picture books.

First Title value, for Searching:

Built to last / Minh Lê ; [illustrated by] Dan Santat.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Audience	Home Location	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
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Meet two friends who think they're building imaginative worlds with blocks but come to realize they've been building something far greater--a sturdy, solid friendship--in this picturebook by award-winning creators.

Two kids build entire worlds out of blocks, cardboard, and imagination. From boats attacked by a sea creature to a castle crumbling into the ocean. And they don't mind when these creations break apart and CRASH to the floor. In fact, they think it's pretty funny! Every time, a creation falls apart, they pick up the pieces and keep building bigger and better.

But when their latest masterpiece tumbles down in spectacular fashion, the boys aren't laughing anymore. Have these two friends reached their breaking point?

Playful text by wordsmith Minh Le and dazzling illustrations by artisan Dan Santat showcase their close collaboration in their latest picturebook. As merry as it is moving, here is a story that recognizes the friendships in life that are truly built to last.

Author Notes

Minh Lê is the acclaimed author of several picture books. His projects with Dan Santat include The Blur, which Kirkus called "a must-purchase" in a starred review, Drawn Together , which won the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Lift, which received five starred reviews. Minh is also the author of Let Me Finish! illustrated by Isabel Roxas, and The Perfect Seat, illustrated by Gus Gordon. Minh has written for the New York Times , the Horn Book , and the Huffington Post . He currently lives in San Diego, California with his wife and kids.

Dan Santat is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author and illustrator of over a hundred books. His picture book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend received the Caldecott Medal. He also illustrated The Blur, Lift, and Drawn Together, all written by Minh Lê, which received critical acclaim. Dan is the creator of the Disney animated hit The Replacements. He lives in Southern California with his family.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

When two kids bump into each other--one wears bright red spectacles, the other has a quiff of dark hair--their individually built block towers go tumbling. But rather than turn on each other, the two, each of whom bear a certain similarity to the book's creators, become avid construction collaborators. "Working hand in hand, we built things we never could have dreamt up on our own," Lê writes. Digitally enhanced watercolor and colored pencil drawings by Santat portray how the pair's increasingly complicated constructions take flight in their merged imaginations, as when an image of the Great Wall of China shown alongside a shaggy dragon is revealed to be a Tinker Toy mélange stalked by a house cat. The collapse of their most ambitious construction momentarily sends each kid to their respective corners, but their remembering "all the times we picked up the pieces and picked each other up" helps them reconcile and move on to another creation. The previous collaborators (Drawn Together) craft a personal-feeling celebration of partnership and a dual portrait of any successful creative pairing. Ages 3--7. Author's agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. Illustrator's agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Apr.)

Horn Book Review

In this entertaining picture book, the duo behind Drawn Together (rev. 7/18) explores friendship and resilience through imaginative play. The two main characters first meet as toddlers after bumping into each other while playing with blocks. As they grow older, their friendship and their creations evolve: the ever-more-elaborate structures incorporate Asian mythological motifs and use a variety of materials, including cardboard, tape, wood, and paint. Each time, their project fails. An argument over the collapse of a creation leads to an important epiphany: "Some things are too important to give up on. Some things deserve to be repaired, no matter how many times they break." Le's succinct, expressive storytelling and Santat's vivid colored-pencil, watercolor, and digital illustrations are both energetic celebrations of these particular, fictional projects and friendships and a possible metaphor for all such creative collaborations (and those characters do bear some resemblance to their creators). Michelle LeeMay/June 2024 p.120 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

A friendship is built and tested. Two friends are brought together with a "BANG" when they bump into each other, knocking over the block towers they were working on. The children, who both have warm beige skin and short black hair, leave their individual projects aside to let their imaginations run wild as they create together. The results are spectacular, if prone to disaster: Their Great Wall is dismantled by a Chinese lion, their lantern-lit boat is capsized by a dragon, and a monster levels their cityscape. Still, the friends seem to find as much joy in the destruction as the building of each new structure. Then they start a new construction, one meant to "stand the test of time." When this, too, collapses, the friends find themselves at an impasse. Can they find a way forward together? Readers will have fun comparing the fantastical worlds the friends occupy with the cardboard-and-tape reality in which they are actually working. Onomatopoeic words are illustrated with force; "CRASH!" judders across the page, and "KABOOM" glows with intensity, promising a satisfying read-aloud experience. With inventive imagery and a relatable conflict, this is a winning selection for crowded storytimes and quiet bedtimes alike. A playful and captivating tribute to imagination and friendship. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Two friends (playful caricatures of the author and the illustrator as kids) are a happy team, building bigger and more elaborate constructions together--which, seen through their eyes, become elaborate fantasy creations, like gently smiling sea dragons and city-destroying monsters. But every finished project somehow ends up in pieces. As little guys, they laugh over the disasters and start again with even bigger dreams. But when their truly magnificent floating construction (Santat's splendid rendering of the iconic sea turtle swimming across the sky carrying a city on its back) crashes to earth, the ever-frustrated older boys are ready to call it quits as friends. On reflection, of course, they recognize that rebuilding is what their friendship is all about. Full of heart, with inventive art presenting wonderful detail in the imaginary worlds the pair concocts, this fourth picture book by the multi-award-winning duo of Lê and Santat cheerfully undergirds the proposition that dedicated teamwork always pays off--because even a rickety result can fortify a friendship.