Young Frank, Architect

Young Frank loves to build macaroni towers, pillow forts, toilet paper cities, shoe skyscrapers,  but his architect grandfather Old Frank insists that real architects only design proper buildings. When the two visit MoMA together and encounter the work of Frank Gehry and Frank Lloyd Wright, Old Frank’s certainties begin to shift. Award-winning illustrator Frank Viva tells the story with bold, graphic illustrations and a limited color palette that mirrors the design principles the book celebrates.

Named a Gizmodo Best Book and praised for its sophisticated aesthetic sensibility, this is a picture book that appeals as much to design-minded adults as to children. A gentle argument for keeping an open mind — and for valuing imaginative play as foundational to creative work, in architecture or anywhere else.