Steve Johnson (9) (1960–)

No Star Nights is a story of Pittsburgh, PA, known as a steel town . At No Star Nights is a story of Pittsburgh, PA, known as a steel town . At night, the skies were alight with the bright lights from the flames of the bars of steel as it came off the production line. In addition, the smells and the dust pervaded. And then, smoke clouded the skies, and the dust settled throughout the town.

This story is told from the perspective of a child whose father worked various shifts in the Pittsburgh Steel Mill. She notes, the sights of the men who worked with her father, as they came out of the mill, lunch boxes and thermos bottles in hands. Driving at night, as the family came home from an outing, the black silhouettes were encased in black clouds of smoke.

These mills created many well-paid jobs for both college educated who worked in the offices, and the working folk who directly produced the end product. In the small town of Pittsburgh, there were Fourth of July parades with clowns, balloons, cheers and the mayor of the city riding in a large car throwing candy to those on the sidewalks in the parade route; there was an aura of down home closeness.

Life was good, but living with the dust, chemicals and, as as the author notes, there were nights when it seemed like a giant lid covered the valley. On those nights, no stars were visible, only the smoke and glow from the blast furnaces.

As a personal note, I lived and worked in Bethlehem, PA . While I worked in a local university, many people I knew had family members who worked in the steel factory. The steel factories produced a lot of high paying jobs, for both the executives who worked in the offices, and the blue color workers who produced the steel. The benefits were great, and the pay was high in relation to other area jobs. Now, like the Pittsburg mills, Bethlehem Steel is no longer functioning.

And similar to the skies of Pittsburgh, Bethlehem also had "no star nights." Both towns are different today. As the author notes in her description of Pittsburgh, today the skies are clear. The stars are visible. Most of the workers have left to find other jobs in other places.

Again, as a personal note, part of where Bethlehem Steel existed, is now a Casino. Many thought Pittsburgh and Bethlehem could never function without the mills. As the author notes, when grandchildren return to Pittsburgh, they talk about their stories of the long nights when the skies were clouded.

This is a story of years gone by in the industrial age of America.

This is another example of a children's illustrated book that teaches history of a time gone by, never to return.… (more)