First published 2014
France wants to give America something extraordinary for its 100th birthday in 1876. The chosen gift stands 111 feet tall and requires careful planning to cross the ocean. Workers must disassemble the massive statue into 350 separate pieces, then pack everything into 214 wooden crates for the Atlantic voyage. The enormous lady will need to find her home in New York Harbor, but first she must survive the journey and reconstruction. Young readers follow each step as teams work to move this colossal present from one continent to another. The book shows how nations cooperate on ambitious projects and how gifts between countries carry deeper meaning than simple objects.
Genres: history, 20th-century, american, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: educational, informative, thought-provoking
Tropes: ambitious-project, international-cooperation
Setting: America, France, New York Harbor
Period: 1876
112 pages · Paperback · Penguin Workshop