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A heartwarming fictional story of why Gustave Eiffel built the Eiffel Tower accompanied by evocative illustrations.

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Everyone knows the Eiffel Tower, yet no one knows the love story that led to its construction. Author Alice Brière-Haquet and illustrator Csil have pooled their creative talents to tell this touching story about overcoming hardship with clever invention fueled by love. Mr. and Mrs. Eiffel are a happy couple enjoying living in the most romantic city in the world, Paris. Until one day, Mrs. Eiffel begins to feel desperately unwell. The experts are unanimous: the only thing that can save her is fresh air. Her husband, a bright engineer, decides he will take matters into his own hands and build a tower that will reach the clouds in an attempt to restore her health.
Csil´s poetically minimal illustrations in black, white, and pink are incredibly evocative, and Alice Brière-Haquet´s words are a delight to read aloud.

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New York Times Best Illustrated Children´s Book of 2015.
"The artwork and text combine to create a delightful fairy tale . . . Pure joie de vivre."
-Kirkus
"Csil´s intricate, spidery drawings are the work´s great charm . . . [E]ach spread has its own complex eccentricity."

-Publisher´s Weekly

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Alice Brière-Haquet is an avid reader who was born in a small town in Normandy and has three children. After her studies she began writing and has now published books that have been translated into 16 languages. Csil is a French illustrator. After studying visual communication and obtaining a Diplôme National Supérieur d´Expression Plastique (DNSEP), a postgraduate degree in the visual arts, she now works as an art director at a communications agency and creates images for various children´s publications.

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