Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there is not much to be concerned about here, but some things may need explanation and context. The subject may be the building of the Empire State Building, but it takes place during the Great Depression, and your kids may want to know why children are scavenging for firewood in the streets of New York.
Families who read this book could discuss sky scrapers. Why do people want to build something so big and difficult to construct? Why do they inspire us? Why would people want such a dangerous job?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
This is a fascinating, nonfiction book about the building of the Empire State Building, framed by a little fictional story about a boy who watches the process. His part, giving a few details of the Depression and including an out-of-work father, is told in an odd, second-person style that's a bit distracting, but the framing device itself does the job of giving a bit of context and drawing younger readers in.
Author Deborah Hopkinson tells the main, nonfiction part in clear prose that doesn't get in the way of the dramatic story, and gives plenty of facts without being overwhelming. But it's James Ransome's glowing oil paintings that make this slim volume soar. Pictures, large and small, from a variety of perspectives, culminate in a gorgeous two-page spread of the finished building at sunrise that gives a sense of the awe and majesty of the building, and the pride New Yorkers felt at their achievement in the depths of the Depression.
From The Book
Then it's the sky boys' show.
Derrick men
hoisting, swinging,
easing each beam into place.
High overhead they crawl
like spiders on steel,
spinning their giant web in the sky.
Plot Summary:
In the winter of the Great Depression, a boy scavenges for firewood on the streets of New York before school. He finds a big pile at a new construction site where the Empire State Building is about to be built.
Over the next year he watches and describes the process of building the giant skyscraper. In May he is one of the first people to ride the elevator up to the Observation Deck. Includes sources, an author's note about the project, and archival photographs on the endpapers.
Related Books:
Other Books by Deborah Hopkinson:
Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906
More Construction:
Pop's Bridge by Eve Bunting
Skyscraper by Susan E. Goodman
Sky Dancers by Connie Ann Kirk
Building Big by David Macaulay
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