Books with author Jeannie Baker

An English �migr� who became America's first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe put his stamp on the built landscape of the new republic. Latrobe contributed to such iconic structures as the south wing of the US Capitol building, the White House, and the Navy Yard. He created some of the early republic's greatest neoclassical interiors, including the Statuary Hall and the Senate, House, and Supreme Court Chambers.As a young man, Latrobe was apprenticed to both a leading architect and civil engineer in London, studied the European continent's architectural and engineering monuments, worked on canals, and designed private houses. After the death of his first wife, he was bankrupt and emigrated to the United States in 1796 to restart his career. For the new nation with grand political expectations, he intended buildings and engineering projects to match those aspirations. Like his patron Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe saw his neoclassical designs as a way to convey American democracy. He envisioned his engineering projects, such as the canals and municipal water systems for Philadelphia and New Orleans, as a way to unite the nation and improve public health.Jean Baker conveys the personality of this charming, driven, and often frustrated genius and the era in which he lived. Latrobe tried to establish architecture as a profession with high standards, established fees, and recognized procedures, though he was unable to collect fees and earn the living his work was worth. Like many of his peers, he speculated and found himself in bankruptcy several times.Building America masterfully narrates the life and legacy of a key figure in creating an American aesthetic in the new United States.

Jeannie Baker, incomparable creator of intricate collage illustrations, invites you to take a plunge with Ben, into the sea ... to see.See what?Underwater forests of kelp.Rocks with strangely beautiful textures.A myriad of fish.The hidden splendour of one of the Earth's last, most alluringly beautiful frontiers.And something totally unexpected!Ben will never see things the same way again. And neither will you.Award: Children's Books 2000-NY Public Lib.

Mike keeps pigeons on the roof of an abandoned burned-out building in New York. Every morning he lets them out of their coop, and they fly around in the sky until he calls them back home for breakfast. But one morning, a white pigeon, Light, flies away. His journey takes him across the city, and onto a subway train, where he is rescued by a young boy. Eventually Light flies back home to Mike, and the following morning the young boy sees him sweeping through the air, at home in the sky.

As in the author's previous picture book, Window, this book is observed through the window of a house in a typical urban neighbourhood, each picture showing a year's developments. This is Window in reverse, though, with the land being reclaimed from built-up concrete to a gradual greening, shown through the artist's characteristic collage illustrations.

Jeannie Baker, renowned the world over for her stunningly intricate collage constructions, presents another insightful ecological lesson, this time focusing her keen eye on one of the earth's last unexplored frontiers, the sea. When he loses his fish trap on the bottom of the bay, Ben fears what forms of ocean life may lurk beneath his rowboat--until Sophie introduces her reluctant friend to the hidden splendor of what he's been missing: Giant Kelp, a myriad of fish, and the colossal surprise of coming eye-to-eye with a whale! Award: Children's Books 2000-NY Public Lib.

In an infinity of sky, tiny godwit birds follow ancient, invisible migratory pathways, flying on and on for nine nights and nine days, flying without rest... This is their story. From the creator of the critically acclaimed Where the Forest Meets the Sea and Mirror, comes a poetic, eco-conscious picture book which explores the complex, interdependency of nature. This is the story of the little-known Bar-tailed Godwit who, following invisible pathways that have been used for thousands of years, undertakes the longest unbroken migration of any bird, a total of 11,000 kilometres, flying from their breeding grounds in Alaska across the Pacific Ocean to Australia or New Zealand. Facing hunger and treacherous conditions to reach their destination, their flight is one of bravery, tenacity and strength, and Jeannie's stunning mixed media collages, inspired first-hand by the spectacular landscapes of Alaska and China, will amaze readers, and take them on an extraordinary visual journey to the corners of our Earth.