Category: Child Labor

Amal UnBound

9/17/2018

Amal Unbound: A Novel By Aisha Saeed, the author of Written in the Stars, is a story of hope and dreams. Amal wants to become a teacher. As the eldest daughter, she must quit school to care for the home and her younger siblings when her mother becomes unable to do so. Then, unaware of whom she is talking to, Amal insults the son of their corrupt landlord. Amal is forced to go to work as an indentured servant in his home to repay her family's debt. What she does not know is that the landlord has arranged things so that she will never be able to work off the debt. Amal soon realizes just how far this ruling family is willing to go to maintain their position in the area.

If you would like to read other books similar to this one, try the following book available from the TAHS library:

Wrintten in the Stars by Aisha Saeed
Shabenu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
The Breadwinner series by Deborah Ellis
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Breaker Boys by Pat Hughes

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Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea

4/21/2016

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Those who know me know that I like historical fiction. It must be good, accurate history, as well as a good story. Rita Sepetys does extensive research for her books. While researching Between Shades of Gray (nothing to do with Fifty Shades of Gray other than they were published about the same time), she visited surviving members of her own family in Lithuania. She was even able to stand inside one the the cattle cars that were used to transport native Lithuanians, Latvians, and other Baltic peoples to the gulags of Stalin in Siberia where everything was just a different shade of gray and survival was a constant battle. Author speaks about the true history of her family behind the book.

Award

Junior Library Guild selection
William C. Morris finalist
Golden Kite Award for Fiction
YALSA's Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults

Ms. Sepetys spent three years researching material for Salt to the Sea. I am always amazed when I read about an historical event of which I have never heard. I was never told in any history class about the Japanese Interment camps in the U.S. during World War II. I knew nothing about them until I read the book Farewell to Manzanar after I started teaching. The same thing was true of Salt to the Sea. I had never even heard of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustoff, the greatest maritime disaster in history. Everyone knows about the sinking of the Titanic and the loss of 1,517 lives. The Wilhelm Gustoff was built for about 1,700 passengers and crew, but was carrying about 10,000 civilians and German millitary personnel desperately trying to escape East Prussia before the Soviet army arrived. When the Wilhelm Gustoff was torpedoed by a Soviet sub, 9,000 lives were lost. Four other ships being used in the evacuation were also sunk that day with a total loss of 17,500 lives on those four ships. Salt to the Sea follows four of the people who were on the Wilhelm Gustoff. Author Introduction to book

If you are interested in other books like this, try the following books from the TAHS library:

In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton
Out of the Depths: An Unforgettable WW II Story of Survival, Courage, and the Sinking of The USS Indianapolis by Edgar Harrell, USMC with his son David Harrell
The Last Voyage of the Lusitania by A.A. Hoehling and Mary Duprey Hoehling

You might also like Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys which is set in New Orleans in the 1950s.

Awards and Honors

Junior Library Guild selection
Carnegie Medal
2017 YA:SA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adult Readers
2017 Virginia Readers' Choice - High School list

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The Boston Girl (Family, Friends and Feminism)

5/14/2015

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The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant is a New York Times Bestseller. It speaks to a time of great change in American and of the immigrant experience of the many families who came here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Addie Baum's parents were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. As the youngest, Addie was fortunate that school attendance was mandatory at least through elementary school. Addie was bright and curious and determined to make something of herself. With the encouragement of her friends and mentors, Addie charts a life for herself that is very different from with her parents planned for her. As she moves from immigrant girl to Boston girl she experiences love and loss, a world war, an influenza epidemic, the suffrage movement, the Great Depression, and the rise of feminism.

If you enjoy reading about the immigrant experience, try these books from the TA library:

Fiction

Bread and Roses by Katherine Paterson
Charlotte's Rose by A.E. Cannon
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Aneika Kaminska (Dear America series) by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker (Dear America series) by Deborah Hopkinson
Prelude by B.J. Hoff
Promise Song by Linda Holeman
Land of Hope ( Book 1 Ellis Island series) by Joan Lowery Nixon
Land of Promise (Book 2 Ellis Island series) by Joan Lowery Nixon
Land of Dreams (Book 3 Ellis Island series) by Joan Lowery Nixon

Nonfiction

Denied, Detain, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum and Naomi Shihab Ney
A Land of Immigrants by David M. Reimers
Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924 by Deborah Hopkinson

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breaker Boys

4/18/2012

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The lives of coal miners and their families have always been difficult, but during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries things were especially hard. Boys had to go to work as soon as they were able, in order for the families to survive. My own grandfather went to work in the mines when he was thirteen and a great uncle started when he was eight. The rule of thumb in many families was that, if the boy could carry his lunch bucket at his side without it dragging on the ground, he was big enough and old enough to go to work in the mines. The mining companies controlled everything. The owned the housing around the mines. They paid the miners with company script (not money) that could only be spent in the company owned stores. (Think of the old song "Sixteen Tons." The miner says, " Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go. I own my soul to the company store.") The work was difficult and dangerous.

In The Breaker Boys by Pat Hughes, Nate Tanner is a rich boy whose family owns coal mines near Hazleton, PA. He has everything a kid could want or need - except a friend. Then he meets Johnny an easygoing Polish American boy who works sorting coal in a filthy, dark building called a breaker. Unaware that Nate is the boss's son, Johnny invites him to play baseball with the breaker boys. As the summer of 1897 progresses, Nate finds himself piling lie on top of lie to keep his identity a secret from Johnny, and the friendship a secret from his family. It also becomes harder and harder for Nate to accept the treatment of the miners and their families.

You might also like the following books from the TA library:

Fiction

The Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Chase by Jessie Haas
The Miner's Daughter by Gretchen Moran Laskas

Nonfiction

Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor by Michael Burgan
Growing Up in Coal Country by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Kids on Strike by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

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Amal UnBound

Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea

The Boston Girl (Family, Friends and Feminism)

breaker Boys

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