Before reading To Walk the Sky: How Iroquois Steelworkers Helped Build Towering Cities, readers may not know about the first Mohawk skywalkers: Native American and Canadian First Nations steelworkers whose skill and fearlessness built many engineering landmarks that stand today, such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. To Walk the Sky is a beautiful peek at the history and ongoing story of these brave and determined men.
Written by Patricia Morris Buckley, herself the descendant of a Quebec Bridge Mohawk skywalker, To Walk the Sky is full of history and information, recounting events such as the 1907 collapse of the Quebec Bridge, which killed 75 workers. While Buckley’s language is significantly more sophisticated than that of many picture books, she narrates like a storyteller and not a textbook. Buckley doesn’t shy away from the struggles, risk and devastation the skywalkers faced throughout the decades, but neither does she dwell on sadness. Matter-of-fact and serious, but with moments of poetry, Buckley’s writing rings with pride and hope for the legacy of these courageous workers. Closing out with the author’s own family history and glossary as well as material on the Quebec Bridge and the Mohawk people, To Walk the Sky provides not only an engaging story, but also a tribute and an education all in one.
Each thoughtful, evocative image from illustrator E.B. Lewis rings with pride and respect. Lewis’ soft watercolor images capture historical moments and current events with equal skill. Watercolor is the perfect medium for this topic, giving plenty of detail, but with a slightly blurred and timeless aura. Similarly, most of Lewis’ characters have vague features, reminding us how often these workers go unrecognized, fading into history. Lewis uses various perspectives to bring readers into this world. We look up at a blue sky crisscrossed by steel beams, and stand behind grieving widows in the aftermath of the Quebec Bridge disaster. We sit across from skywalkers, in imitation of the famous “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photograph of workers eating as they sit on top of a steel beam during the construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan. And we find ourselves in a haze of yellow, among the ruins of 9/11, an image that is both familiar and visceral.
To Walk the Sky is marketed for young audiences, though it is a little lengthier than your traditional children’s storytime book. However, this book will find a home in nearly every age group and setting, from families of steelworkers and proud descendants of the brave skywalkers, to middle grade students learning about Native American history. Above all, one hopes To Walk the Sky will find those imaginative little ones with their own big dreams of building something incredible.