Another Biesty marvel, the pages thronging with detail and color, bursting at the seams from all the information per square inch, and filled with wonderful oddities secreted in the illustrations (don't miss the prisoner left to rot in the fittingly named ``forget-me-not'). Platt (Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-O-War, 1993, etc.) does a good job of explaining the particulars, for it is in the minutiae that this book excels; if you take a step back in order to get a look at the big picture, you will be disappointed. More troubling is the coldness of the book: It is hard to identify with anyone in the castle, hard to get a sense of what they are all about, or what a siege is for, mostly because the castle is never placed in any sort of context. The castle is laid bare, yes, but there is an inertness to it, like a frog on a dissecting table.

The creators of Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections have trained their writing and illustrative talents on an eighteenth-century British man-of-war. Stephen Biesty (born 27 January 1961) is a British illustrator. He was born in Coventry. Most notably, his Incredible Cross Sections (1992).

Technically a gem, but not nearly as satisfying as Macaulay's Castle. (Nonfiction/Picture book. Nxt Program Software.

My Grade = 90% - A This is my second Stephen Biesty Crpss Section. The first was Man-of-War Cross-Section, which was obviously about a British Man-of-War. In it, each set of facing pages was a full cross-section drawing of some aspect of, of course, the Man-of-War.

I found it truly fascinating and was very interested in finding others like it. In this book, each set of two facing pages is on a different building or vehicle, except two: the ocean liner (Queen Mary) and the 1930's Steam Train, which My Grade = 90% - A This is my second Stephen Biesty Crpss Section. The first was Man-of-War Cross-Section, which was obviously about a British Man-of-War. In it, each set of facing pages was a full cross-section drawing of some aspect of, of course, the Man-of-War. I found it truly fascinating and was very interested in finding others like it.