Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes

Leung and Wu portray renowned modernist architect I.M. Pei (1917–2019) as perceptive, serious, and determined from an early age. Visiting stream-carved volcanic rocks in Suzhou, China, young Pei notes the “careful planning” behind the pieces. As an adult, he breaks with decorative architecture and embraces modernism—and he soon becomes one of its most recognizable champions, with commissions that include a new entrance to the Louvre. Pei’s relentless creativity, and the excitement of modernism itself, are conveyed via digital images that combine crisp lines with almost luminescent colors, evoking the movement’s signature geometric shapes and favored materials of glass and steel. Reportorial spreads occasionally take wonderful flights of fancy: one shows Pei leaning over Hong Kong as he contemplates creating a skyscraper that will withstand typhoons. A timeline and sources conclude. Ages 4–8. (May)