Kirkus Reviews (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Set in the 1930s, nonfiction author Kirk's debut picture book tells the story of John Cloud, a young Mohawk boy, and his relationship with his steelworker father, who is helping to build the Empire State Building. One weekend, John Cloud, his mother, and grandfather travel from the reservation upstate to visit John Cloud's father in New York City. In full-bleed spreads, Hale captures the energy and excitement of the trip, from the train ride to the family's arrival to the moment John Cloud spots his father working way up high. Gouache illustrations draw on period influences such as the Depression-era city scenes of Edward Hopper and Art Deco angles and lines. Kirk's research into Mohawk culture and the experience of Native steelworkers adds authenticity, making this a true-to-life portrait of family life and traditions. (Picture book. 7-10)

Horn Book (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

John Cloud, a Mohawk boy, travels from the reservation in upstate New York to visit Papa, a steelworker on the Empire State Building. Rich, sunlit gouache illustrations establish the 1930s setting for this well-told story of a boy's pride in his father, his people, and--for his newfound ability to hear Father Sky and Mother Earth--himself. A historical note is appended.

ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

In her first work of fiction for children, Kirk introduces the generations-old connection between the Mohawk people and steelworking. John Cloud, who lives on a reservation, misses his father and uncle during their weeks working construction sites in Manhattan. John's first visit to the city brings both strange sights (There were traffic lights where John thought trees should be) and deepening pride when he witnesses his father's agile figure high atop the incomplete Empire State Building. Hale's boldly stroked, assertively colored paintings aren't as expressive as her mixed-media contributions to Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen's Elizabeti's Doll (1998), but children will thrill to her images of the sky dancers casually strolling along the narrow beams, the city spread dizzyingly below. This will work nicely to extend children's understanding of Native American traditions, and Kirk's carefully phrased author's note provides clear-eyed background on how members of this particular group came to be disproportionately represented in such a spine-tingling line of work.

School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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