Pop's Bridge [Hardcover]

Eve Bunting (Author), C.F. Payne (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

The Golden Gate Bridge. The impossible bridge, some call it. They say it can't be built.

But Robert's father is building it. He's a skywalker--a brave, high-climbing ironworker. Robert is convinced his pop has the most important job on the crew . . . until a frightening event makes him see that it takes an entire team to accomplish the impossible.

When it was completed in 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was hailed as an international marvel. Eve Bunting's riveting story salutes the ingenuity and courage of every person who helped raise this majestic American icon.
Includes an author's note about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4–Robert and his friend Charlie Shu spend many an afternoon at Fort Point watching from afar as their dads work on the crews building the Golden Gate Bridge. Robert's father is a high-iron man, a skywalker, and, in his son's eyes, has a far more important and dangerous job than the painting Charlie's dad does. When Robert's mom gives the youngsters a jigsaw puzzle based on an artist's rendering of the yet-to-be completed bridge, Robert hides a piece to give his father the honor of completing the puzzle. When a scaffold falls and 10 men die, however, he realizes that the work is equally dangerous for all involved. While the two families are celebrating the completion of the bridge, he cuts the last puzzle piece, offering half to each dad. Finish it. It's your bridge. It belongs to both of you, he says. The text is followed by an author's note recounting the Golden Gate's history. Payne's striking mixed-media illustrations bleed off the pages and offer interesting views of the impossible bridge–against a star-filled sky, through a binocular lens. The spread featuring delighted throngs, both boys front and center, walking across the bridge at its opening and that of the dads, index fingers meeting across the page to complete the puzzle, say more poignantly than words that people of different backgrounds can come together to accomplish the unthinkable. Deborah Hopkinson's Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building (Random, 2006) features more skywalkers at their dangerous jobs.–Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 3. The bridge is San Francisco's fabled Golden Gate, and Robert's father is helping to build it. Pop is a high-iron worker, what folks called a "skywalker." And, in the year 1937, he is one of more than a thousand men who are engaged in constructing the "impossible bridge." Robert's friend Charlie Shu's father, a painter, is also involved, but Robert secretly feels Pop's job is more important than Mr. Shu's. Then an accident forces him to rethink things. Distinguished by its lovely, understated text and Payne's lavish and affectionate mixed-media pictures, this picture book does a quietly successful job of humanizing one of the most important feats of civil engineering in American history. For more about skywalkers, recommend Deborah Hopkinson's Sky Boys (2006), about workers who built the Empire State Building. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; First Edition edition (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152047735
• ISBN-13: 978-0152047733
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eve Bunting has written more than 200 books for children, many of which can be found in libraries around the world. Her other Clarion titles for very young readers include My Big Boy Bed, which was also illustrated by Maggie Smith, and Little Bear's Little Boat, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open Up Your Golden Gate! An Outstanding Book., March 28, 2007

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pop's Bridge (Hardcover)

This must be one of prolific writer Eve Bunting's best works, personalizing the fantastic story of the Golden Gate Bridge through the eyes of a construction worker's son. "There's a crew of more than a thousand men working on that bridge, Robert, including [your friend] Charlie's dad," says mom. "I know that, but I just shrug. To me, it's Pop's bridge." Robert's dad is a "high iron man, "balancing on the catwalks, spinning and bending the cables....When the fog rollss in, he disappears completely." Charlie's dad is a painter, painting the bridge the now famous shade of "International Orange" before it's even finished.

However, Robert's a bit of a snob when it comes to bridge building. In his hierarchy, iron men are --literally and figuratively--much higher than mere painters. One day,, however, there's an accident at the bridge, and the boys watch in horror as "scaffolding crashes down into the safety net. The net tears loose, and men go with it into the swirling tide." (This scene is based on an actual event.) Through RObert's binoculars, they see that both of their dads are ok.

Later, in a somber, reflective mood, Robert realizes that there is equal work and risk for all the workers, no matter what their job. The book concludes on a celebratory note; however, as Robert and Charlie traverse the bridge on opening day, and share a meal of sarsaparilla. stewed chicken. a Chinese noodle dish made by Charlie's dad, and a snickerdoodle pie. Robert shares a surprise intended for his dad alone with both his and Charlie's dad: The last piece of a jigsaw puzzle of the bridge that both men put in together.

The narrative is superb, combining historical facts (there's an excellent afterward with more information) with a story of friendship and maturity. The illustrations are equally outstanding, and rank with the finest in kids' books. C. F. Payne perfectly captures the awesome magic and mystery of the bridge, and his facial close-ups--very slightly exaggerated--recall the work of Norman Rockwell and Patricia Polacco. Payne even paints the period clothes and other details (e.g., room interiors) accurately. An outstanding work--certainly one of the best I've read this year.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A colorfully illustrated fictional story of a boy watching his father and a thousand co-workers erect the Golden Gate Bridge, October 5, 2009

By 

American Immigration Council's Community Educ... (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pop's Bridge (Hardcover)

A young boy named Robert tells this colorfully illustrated fictional story of watching his father and a thousand co-workers erect the Golden Gate Bridge over the San Francisco Bay during the 1930s. He refers to the project as "Pop's Bridge" believing his father's role as an ironworker is more significant than those of the other workers. Robert and his friend Charlie Shu, whose dad is a painter on the bridge, watch the bridge's progress through binoculars from Fort Point. They also spend their time creating putting together a jigsaw puzzle of the Golden Gate. An accident happens on the bridge leaving Robert with a new appreciation for all of the construction workers, including Charlie's dad.

Author Eve Bunting emigrated from Ireland in 1959 and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on her first day in America. While this story makes no reference to immigration, it does imply how people of varying ethnic backgrounds have worked together here this country to make great things happen, including building the impossible bridge. The generous illustrations vividly depict the Golden Gate while occasionally making caricatures of the characters. A good read for primary students.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story !, January 3, 2007

By 

Jesse A. Nisson "BookLADY" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pop's Bridge (Hardcover)

Even Bunting has written another great book with this one about the Golden Gate bridge. I bought it for a school library and it's a big hit with students.