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Steel Town

Illustrated by Terry Widener
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About The Book

In Steel Town,
it's always dark.
In Steel Town,
it's always raining...


In Steel Town, the mills blaze all day and all night, making steel and even more steel to be shipped over the Magic Mountains, down the Pitch-Black River, and far, far away. The men who work in the mills work as hard as the machines that make the steel, never stopping. But when the men go home at night, a different side of Steel Town emerges -- one filled with music and neighbors, pierogies and spaghetti, churches and front porches.
This gritty yet poetic world is brought to life through Jonah Winter's lyrical, rhythmic text and Terry Widener's luscious, nocturnal illustrations, whose massive figures glow with the few lights that shine through this darkness. This is a portrait of an imaginary town derived from the very real American steel towns of the 1930s, when the sky was often black as night all day and the cavernous mills belched out fire and smoke. Here is a journey to a town that time has not forgotten, just misplaced: Steel Town.

About The Author

Photo courtesy of the author

Jonah Winter is the award-winning author of more than forty nonfiction picture books that promote environmental awareness and social and racial justice. Among them are The Snow ManThe Little Owl & the Big Tree: A Christmas StoryOilThe Secret ProjectRuth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. InequalityMy Name is James Madison HemingsBarackThe Founding Fathers!; and Lillian’s Right to Vote, a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award recipient and Kirkus Prize finalist.

About The Illustrator

Terry Widener is an award-winning illustrator whose picture books include Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man by David A. Adler, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, and America's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, also by David A. Adler, a Junior Library Guild Selection. He is also the illustrator of Peg and the Whale by Kenneth Oppel and If the Shoe Fit by Gary Soto. Mr. Widener lives with his wife and three children in McKinney, Texas.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (May 20, 2008)
  • Length: 40 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781416940814
  • Ages: 4 - 8

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Awards and Honors

  • CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book

Resources and Downloads

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More books from this author: Jonah Winter

More books from this illustrator: Terry Widener