Mosque
Grade 5 Up-Macaulay's books on architecture are by now an institution in themselves, and this latest addition to the series maintains the high quality of its predecessors. Using, as always, a fictional framework to hold his nonfictional material, the author introduces readers to Admiral Suha Mehmet Pasa, a wealthy aristocrat living in Istanbul, who decides in his declining years to fund the building of a mosque and its associated buildings-religious school, soup kitchen, public baths, public fountain, and tomb. Detailing the activities of the architect and workers, Macaulay creates a from-the-ground-up look not only at the actual construction, but also at the uses of the various buildings, most of which will be unfamiliar to Westerners. In his preface, the artist states that he has based his invented mosque on the existing structures of a famous Ottoman architect, Sinan, who worked during the mid to late 16th century. While there are many books that introduce Islam and its major beliefs and practices to non-Muslim readers, this title provides both a less didactic and arguably more effective look at the religion by placing it within a social context, even one as relatively "cold" as architecture. In this way, the admiral, his architect, and their workers are seen as more than followers of a faith; they are also seen as flesh-and-blood people who require toilets and baths and who recognize their own mortality.Coop Renner, Fairmeadows Elementary, Duncanville, TXCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.