Sky Dancers
by Connie Anne Kirk (Author) Christy Hale (Illustrator)
John Cloud's father is a steelworker building skyscrapers in New York City, far away from their home upstate on the Mohawk Reservation. When Papa is home on weekends, John Cloud stays close by his father's side, helping him with his work. Between weekends John Cloud misses Papa and longs to visit him in the city.
One day Mama agrees to take him there. New York City turns out to be busy and noisy, but what really astonishes John Cloud is seeing Papa on a high cross beam of the Empire State Building, the tallest skyscraper in the world. John Cloud feels as if his heart will burst with pride and amazement as he watches his father dance across the sky.
Set in the early 1930s and based on the history of Mohawk steelworkers, Sky Dancers is a warm celebration of family, courage, and the forces of nature. Sensitively told and stunningly illustrated, this is a story for all ages.
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School Library Journal
Gr 1-4 -When his steelworking Mohawk Indian father is away from home, helping to build the Empire State Building, young John Cloud misses him. The boy, who has difficulty climbing a friendly old oak in his own yard, longs to travel to New York City to see the construction site where Papa dances on iron cross beams. After making the trip with his mother and grandfather, he returns home and finally finds the courage to climb a bit higher in the tree's branches. Hale's expressionistic, gouache illustrations bring to mind the art created for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration: most pages are filled from edge to edge with densely pigmented pictures that draw the eye upward, and Papa is always awash in a golden glow. The story's central message is self-acceptance; this theme wrestles a bit to be heard here, as it is squeezed into a picture book that also incorporates the economic necessities of the 1930s, the building boom of the day, contrasting cultures, and a romantic look at the Mohawk steelworking tradition. Slight slips in grammar and in depiction (Papa sometimes favors Cesar Chavez, for example, and the presence of city bridges that were not completed until several months after the Empire State Building is confusing) won't deter collectors of city-centric titles, but otherwise, this is an additional purchase." -Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT"
Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
JUV016150 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | United States - 20th Century
JUV011040 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - Native American
