Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A child-centered account of the origins of San Francisco's Golden Gate BridgeThe lighthouse keeper's children wake to a foghorn's blast. Pa rushes out the door to see the work begin on the new bridge. The children watch, too. Steel and concrete square off against fog, wind, and surf. But the "impossible" challenge of building the world's longest suspension bridge (at the time) rallies builders. Dynamite and machines reshape the land. The foreman stops by the lighthouse-based on the real-life Lime Point Lighthouse, where lighthouse keepers and their families lived-for coffee and pancakes. During one visit, the children even get to see the bridge's blueprints. Construction goes on for days, months, even years as the children take in the sights and sounds. The author carefully recounts each step until opening day on May 27, 1937. The whole family wakes early once more to join the celebration as the completed bridge hums with life and excitement. Making playful use of language, Partridge's immersive, meticulously detailed second-person narration pairs seamlessly with Heck's intricate, realistic images for a child's-eye glimpse of the whole thrilling process. Endpapers beautifully mimic the iconic bridge, with close-ups on the reddish-orange steel. The afterword offers essential historical context, including a note about Mohawk ironworkers who helped build the bridge. The family is light-skinned.A riveting look at an iconic landmark and architectural feat.(Informational picture book. 5-8)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 1–3— Readers observe, along with the lighthouse keeper's children, the construction of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge as it slowly spans the strait. Various stages from the four years of work it took to build the bridge are described with enough detail to satisfy those hungry for facts and stats. For instance, the riveting gang "drives 350 rivets a day" with "600,000 sturdy rivets" holding each tower together. Mixed media illustrations capture the "fog and wind and pounding surf" that are the constant companions of the workers as they pour concrete, string cables, and blast bedrock. A bottom panel across each spread shows the progress of the construction, with elements of the bridge highlighted in iconic orange against the blues and grays of the water and sky. The first of these panels shows the foreman rolling out the blueprints as the work begins; the last shows him rolling them back up when the work is done. Details in the afterword include the names of some of the workers and an explanation for the final color of the bridge. VERDICT A well-researched and excellent addition to STEM classes and library collections.— Suzanne Costner

ALA Booklist (Thu Oct 31 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Using second-person narration ich Heck supplements by placing two young San Franciscans, a brother and a sister, in every illustration rtridge invites young readers to take ringside seats to the construction of the mighty Golden Gate Bridge. While long, schematic panels running along the bottom indicate the project's overall progress from blueprints to opening-day festivities, the larger, carefully detailed, and dramatically angled scenes show huge red towers rising up in stages from ground level. Tiny workers clamber over the immense beams, threading in cables as the two young observers look up. In both her main account and her afterword, Partridge provides clear pictures of the project's many challenges; in the latter, she adds a nod to the construction crews particular, the group of skilled Mohawk ironworkers d acknowledges the 11 men who died despite stringent safety precautions. As the two children lead the inaugural crowd surging onto the finished bridge to the sound of foghorns on a May day in 1937, it's hard not to join in the giddy rush.

Kirkus Reviews

A child-centered account of the origins of San Francisco's Golden Gate BridgeThe lighthouse keeper's children wake to a foghorn's blast. Pa rushes out the door to see the work begin on the new bridge. The children watch, too. Steel and concrete square off against fog, wind, and surf. But the "impossible" challenge of building the world's longest suspension bridge (at the time) rallies builders. Dynamite and machines reshape the land. The foreman stops by the lighthouse-based on the real-life Lime Point Lighthouse, where lighthouse keepers and their families lived-for coffee and pancakes. During one visit, the children even get to see the bridge's blueprints. Construction goes on for days, months, even years as the children take in the sights and sounds. The author carefully recounts each step until opening day on May 27, 1937. The whole family wakes early once more to join the celebration as the completed bridge hums with life and excitement. Making playful use of language, Partridge's immersive, meticulously detailed second-person narration pairs seamlessly with Heck's intricate, realistic images for a child's-eye glimpse of the whole thrilling process. Endpapers beautifully mimic the iconic bridge, with close-ups on the reddish-orange steel. The afterword offers essential historical context, including a note about Mohawk ironworkers who helped build the bridge. The family is light-skinned.A riveting look at an iconic landmark and architectural feat.(Informational picture book. 5-8)