Stimulating projects enable kids to grasp the ideas underlying Wright's work.

This profusely illustrated work offers abundant insights into the early development of the skyscraper and the influence of two master builders who played key roles in its evolution. Rare photos, floor plans, and renderings document such influential structures as Sullivan' Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Wright' Larkin building in Buffalo and many others.

Wright and Olgivanna began the Taliesin Fellowship, taking on apprentices. Fallingwater brought him new acclaim for its modern principles and materials integrated with the landscape. Usonian houses were high-quality, affordable housing for mass production. In 1937, the Fellowship began annual pilgrimage to Arizaona's Taliesin West. His provocative postwar gas stations, synagogues, and a spiral-ramped Guggenheim Museum, closed out his career.

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"If you seek his monument, look around," commands Adrian Tinniswood in his scholarly but elegantly entertaining biography of Christopher Wren (1632-1723). "As an architect, he changed the face of England and the course of architectural history." Tinniswood describes with appreciation and discernment Wren's greatest buildings: "the bubble of unexampled lightness that is St. Stephen Walbrook" church, the additions to Hampton Court, and of course London's majestic St. Paul's Cathedral, a symbol of British faith and courage throughout the centuries. These structures were political as well as architectural achievements, and Tinniswood nicely captures the discretion, ruthlessness, and carefully cultivated connections that enabled Wren to survive the Civil War, get himself named Royal Surveyor, hang on to the job under five monarchs, and get designs approved and money wheedled out of a reluctant parliament. Tinniswood pays equally intelligent attention to Wren's early career as an esteemed Oxford astronomy professor and charter member of the Royal Society (and its president from 1681-3). He writes wittily about the quirks of Wren and such peers as Newton and Bernini, capturing the intensely personal nature of 17th-century public culture, and he (sparingly) offers his opinions in a way that enhances our understanding of the period. "I want my heroes to be people, not ideas," Tinniswood writes, after describing a squabble at the Royal Society. This sparkling biography reveals Wren as a human being without detracting from the heroic nature of his accomplishments. --Wendy Smith

Julia Morgan was not afraid to be different. In a time when most women were seeking marriage and a family, she chose a career in architecture. Best known as the architect of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, she also left a legacy of more than seven hundred buildings. She was an intensely private person who avoided publicity and believed that her "buildings should speak for themselves." Julia Morgan employed a number of women as architects and drafters--many just out of school. She led by example and shared both knowledge and profits freely with her staff. Ginger Wadsworth's biography illuminates the life of this distinguished woman, whose trailblazing career helped to open the field of architecture to women.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the greatest artists of all time, was not exactly a noble and humble man. Irritable, arrogant, and impatient, his perfectionism and expectations drove away many potential friends, and even provoked one would-be friend to hit him in the nose, crushing it "like a biscuit." However, what's truly important for us today is that this man ultimately became an artistic genius, mastering the three arts of the Renaissance: sculpture, painting, and architecture. From his early years, when he created the Pieta (at age 25), to his 40 years of tormented work on a monumental tomb for Pope Julius II, to his greatest masterpiece, the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo astounded people with his almost otherworldly talent. Diane Stanley's well-researched, vivid narrative captures the life of the creator of some of the world's most beautiful, heart-wrenching works of art. Her illustrations are fantastically elaborate and include details of many of Michelangelo's sculptures and paintings. Michelangelo is a perfect introduction to art and art history, with plenty of compelling background information about the Renaissance and life in 15th and 16th century Italy. Stanley has written many other award-winning picture-book biographies, including Leonardo da Vinci and Cleopatra. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter