The Supreme, Superb, Exalted and Delightful, One and Only Magic Building
ISBN 9780374373030 · Find on Bookshop.org
The book of the day is The Supreme, Superb, Exalted and Delightful, One and Only Magic Building by William Kotzwinkle and Joe Servello. A haughty and vainglorious Emperor seeks to erect a palace, a majestic, soaring edifice in his own honor. An elderly carpenter known as Old Ridgepole joins the work crew and soon makes himself indispensable to the construction, despite the scornful and belittling treatment he receives from the Emperor. During the celebration on the night of the ostentatious structure’s completion, a freak storm ignites a raging fire in the palace, as if the gods themselves are offended by the monarch’s hubris, and all within must flee for their lives. The divine blaze reveals as much as it destroys, and the philosophy of an entire nation undergoes a revolutionary paradigm shift. Kotzwinkle establishes Old Ridgepole and the Emperor as diametric opposites, avatars of two radically different mindsets. Servello’s elegant woodcuts and restricted color palette infuse the proceedings with a grippingly cinematic flair. #williamkotzwinkle #magic #building #carpenter #emperor #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks