The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

Published in 2003, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French street performer who walked a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Gerstein captures both the daring of the feat and the poetry of the moment with his illustrations, which earned him the 2004 Caldecott Medal.

The book begins almost like a fairy tale, setting the scene: two towers rise into the sky, and a young man sees the space between them as the perfect place to walk a wire. The illustrations convey the vertigo of the heights, the tension of the act, and the extraordinary courage and freedom Petit experiences. The narrative keeps the focus on his obsession, his preparation, and the exhilaration of achievement, transforms the real event into a story of human daring and wonder.

The book has been adapted into an animated short, a ballet, and inspired the feature film The Walk (2015) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.