Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building (review)
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Readers are invited to imagine themselves into the place of a young Depression-era boy whose father is out of work, and whose great interest lies in watching the mammoth structure at 350 Fifth Avenue rise from its foundation and race the Chrysler Building to the sky. He watches in awe the workers who scuttle across the steel beams—hoisting and riveting, carrying water and operating the rail cars that carry supplies across each floor. Months after the framework is constructed and the interior work is completed, the boy's father musters enough cash to take his son on an opening-day elevator ride to the observation deck for a day-into-night [End Page 267] time view of New York. Although Hopkinson touches on some intriguing details of the high steelmen's tasks—from the speedy and precise procedures for heating, tossing, and securing rivets to the food and rest facilities high above ground—only a small portion of text and illustration is exclusively devoted to that perilous work, and indeed the most breathtaking scenes are found in the black-and-white photo-collage endpapers. Ransome's oil paintings, which effectively capture various jobs and stages of construction, never take full advantage of the thrillingly vertiginous possibilities this attractive subject offers. A source note comments on the use of the term "sky boy," and an author's note includes nuggets of additional data on the ESB, its developer, and its architects.
