Labor Movement


  • • Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch, about a young girl and her sister who immigrate from Ireland and get hired eventually at the Triangle Factory

    • • Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.  Growing Up in Coal Country.   Describes what life was like, especially for children, in coal mines and mining towns in
    • Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.  Kids on Strike!    Describes the conditions and treatment that drove working children to strike, from the mill workers'
    • Big Annie of Calumet: A True Story of the Indsutrial Revolution by Jerry Stanley.
    • Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully  (picture book)
    • Cheap Raw Material--Milton Meltzer
    • Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp also by Jerry Stanley.
    • Coal Miner's Bride by Bartoletti deals with laborers in and around the coal mines of Pennsylvania.
    • Cole, Sheila.  Working Kids on Working.   25 young people discuss their work experiences. Also includes a brief history of child labor laws and legal
    • Colman, Penny.  Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
    • Dash, Joan.  We Shall Not be Moved: The Women's Factory Strike of 1909. Describes the conditions that gave rise to efforts to secure better working conditions
    • Emmeline by Judith Rossner
    • Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
    • Fire! The Beginnings of the Labor Movement--Barbara Diamond Goldin
    • Freedman, Russsell.  Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor.
    • Gloria Skurzynski's ROCKBUSTER is a YA novel that fits.
    • Gourley, Catherine.  Good Girl Work: Factories, Sweatshops and how Women Changed Their Role in the American Workforce.
    • Industrial Revolution--ed. John D. Clare (Living History)
    • Industrial Workers of the World, Joe Holl, 18-year-old Utah coal miner Tommy Quinlan begins to accept his past and make decisions about his future.
    • Industry and Business--Linda Leuzzi (Chelsea House pub.)
    • Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery--Susan Kuklin
    • its struggles to organize, win improved conditions for its members, and rid itself of internal corruption.
    • Josephson, Judith Pinkerton. Mother Jones: fierce fighter for workers' rights
    • Kids at Work by Russell Freedman
    • Kids on Strike! by Susan C. Bartoletti
    • Layden, Joe.  The great American Baseball Strike. Examines the 1994-95 baseball strike within the context of the history of the game, its past labor problems, and its future as the great American pastime.
    • Levy, Elizabeth.  Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win.    Traces the history of the United Mine Workers, the first major industry-wide union
    • Lord Kirkle's Money--Avi
    • Lyddie by Katherine Patterson
    • Meltzer, Milton. Bread-- and roses: the struggle of American labor 1865-1915
    • Mill-David McCauley
    • Mim's Christmas Jam--Andrea Pinkney (NYC subway)
    • Missing From Haymarket Square by Harriet Robinet. slightly unrealistic in the amount of free time the young laborer has to pursue the mystery
    • Mr. Blue Jeans: A Story About Levi Strauss--Maryann N. Weidt
    • nature of the work itself.
    • Roses Sing on New Snow--Paul Yee
    • Russell Freedman's Kids at Work
    • Saller, Carol.  Working Children.  Describes the various jobs which children performed during the early 1900's, the reasons for employment
    • Skurzynski, Gloria.  Rockbuster.  In 1915, after being asked to sing at the funeral of executed songwriter and member of the international union
    • Smith, Mike (Michael O.)  The Reuther Brothers: Walter, Roy and Victor.  (Great Lake Books, Detroit biography series for young readers
    • Stanley, Jerry. Big Annie of Calumet: a true story of the Industrial Revolution
    • Stein, R. Conrad.  The Story of the Pullman Strike.    Traces the history of the unsuccessful but influential strike in which the American Railroad Union supported the employees of the Pullman Company.
    • Tenements: Immigrant Life on the Lower Easst Side by Raymond Bial
    • The Babe and I--David Adler (newspaper seller)
    • The Clock by James Lincoln Collier
    • The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant. He works in the mines in Northern Minnesota and gets involved in fighting for worker's rights.
    • The Sanyasin's First Day--Ned Shank (India)
    • This land was made for you and me : the life and songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge.
    • Those Building Men--Angela Johnson
    • Uncle Jed's Barbershop--Margaree King Mitchell
    • University Press.  2001)
    • Unraveling by Elizabeth Graver
    • Up Molasses Mountain by Julie Baker.  It's set in the West Virginia mining country in the 50's, when strikers are trying to unionize the coal mine.
    • We Have Marched Together: The Working Children's Crusade by Stephen Currie.
    • Worksong--Gary Paulsen

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