Stephen Biesty's Absolutely Best Cross Section Book Ever

Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections

by Stephen Biesty, Richard Platt

Genres: Nonfiction

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Stephen Biesty is the creator of Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections, which has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its publication in 1992. He lives in Somerset, England.

Reviews

[Thaddeus Bradley]

In the early 90's, UK publishing house Dorling Kindersley released a book of cross-sections illustrated by the architect, Stephen Biesty, with words from Richard Platt. Over the next 7 years, starting in 1992, the duo released 7 books in the series, culminating with this title in '99.

There is simply no non-fiction for young readers that has or will surpass this series. The spreads are truly breathtaking, the writing accessible and chock-full of interesting facts. These books were an absolute revelation to my mind, and one of the original reviewers is spot-on when they remarked that this is the type of book that gets a kid hooked on non-fiction for life. It certainly did with me. If you have a young reader in your life ages 8 to 12, go on Thriftbooks and pick up any of the original books in this series, either from DK for the UK editions, or the American editions from Knopf (the newer 25th anniversary editions are a noticeable drop-off in quality).

My only caveat is that some of the information is outdated, specifically when discussing modern technology in the 90's. But the two best books in the series, Castle and Stowaway!, are historical in nature and haven't been made irrelevant by the advent of the internet.

[Dinh Hong]

interesting to look into nooks of most business and technologies and more