Factory Work

  • Auch, Mary Jane.  Ashes of Roses is about 16-year old Rose Nolan, who arrives at Ellis Island with her family and begins a job at the   Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. This factory, of course, was the site of the tragic 1911 fire, in which 146 young girls died due to the fact that they were literally locked in.
  • Avi. BEYOND THE WESTERN SEA, BOOK 2: LORD KIRLE'S MONEY.
  • Collier, James. THE CLOCK. In 1810 in Connecticut, trapped in a grueling job in the local textile mill to help pay her father's debts, fifteen-year-old Annie becomes the victim of the cruel overseer and plots revenge against him.
  • Conlon-McKenna, Marita. Wildflower girl.  In the 1850s, thirteen-year-old Peggy O'Driscoll sets out alone from Ireland for America, hoping to make a better life for herself.
  • Denenberg, Barry. SO FAR FROM HOME: THE DIARY OF MARY DRISCOLL, AN IRISH MILL GIRL. (Dear America)
  • Graver, Elizabeth. UNRAVELLING.
  • Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war. Based on a true story, the main character and her sister spend time working in a factory in Czechoslovakia during the war.
  • Marzollo, Jean. Halfway down Paddy Lane. Fifteen-year-old Kate finds herself transported back in time to 1850 in her Connecticut town, where she must adjust to the prejudices against Irish immigrants, work long hours in a cotton mill, and, tragically, fall in love with a boy who thinks he is her brother.
  • McCauley, David. MILL.
  • McCully, Emily Arnold. THE BOBBIN GIRL.
  • Paterson, Katherine. LYDDIE.
  • Rinaldi, Anne. THE BLUE DOOR.
  • Robinet, Harriette Gillem. Missing from Haymarket Square.  Three children in Chicago in 1886 experience the Haymarket Riot in response to exploitative working conditions.
  • Selden, Bernice. THE MILL GIRLS.
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