Steel Town Illustrated by Terry Widener Atheneum, 2008
CBC/NCSS Notable Children’s Book in Social Studies Parents’ Choice Award Silver Honor Kirkus Best Children’s Books of 2008
TWO STARRED REVIEWS...!
* “Evocative illustrations pulse with energy and poetic prose describes the nation’s industrial past in loving detail…. The amalgam of history, industry and imagination proudly stands as both a beautiful and intriguing glimpse into a long-gone past and a paean to the hard work required to create the ‘big beams used to make buildings…, big sheets used to make cars…’” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
* “Winter’s poetic text traces the fiery journey of ore to iron to steel and celebrates the grinding, sweaty toil of the men who run it through the mill…. Blast some Aaron Copeland in the background and make this the centerpiece for a Labor Day program.” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review)
“Readers are immediately drawn into the heat and the grime of a steel town…. Both informative and visually stunning, this beautifully written and powerfully illustrated picture book will make a perfect addition to any collection.” (School Library Journal)
“What begins as an elegy to the industrial steel boom opens to reveal the quiet resilience of the human spirit…. Careful, explicit descriptions of steel production, molded into sinuous free verse, call up the heat and hardship of the labor while expressing the indelible survival of the laborers…. Those who discover it will find themselves enlightened, and moved.” (Booklist)
