Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal. She lives in Moscow, Pennsylvania.
Bartoletti has written a concise, thoroughly researched account of
the often grim working and living conditions in Pennsylvania coal
towns. An accessible writing style, as well as the abundance of
stimulating information, makes for an engrossing historical
account. Quotes from personal interviews with miners, as well as
taped interviews and transcripts, provide a refreshing first person
frame of reference. Horn Book With compelling black-and-white
photographs of children at work in the coal mines of northeastern
Pennsylvania about 100 years ago, this handsome, spacious
photo-essay will draw browsers as well as students doing research
on labor and immigrant history. The story of these boys' lives are
a part of Russell Freedman's general overview Kids at Work (1994)
and of Betsy Harvey Kraft's biography Mother Jones (1995); but
there's a wealth of personal detail and family story here that
focuses on what it was like in the mines and in the homes and
communities of these working children. Lewis Hines' famous pictures
will grab readers, and Bartoletti has also gathered dozens of
archival photos and heartbreaking oral histories. They show what it
was like for eight-year-old breaker boys sorting coal surrounded by
deafening noise and black clouds of dust, steam, and smoke; what it
was like to be a mule driver underground; what it meant to be a
spragger, a butty, a nipper. Drawing on personal interviews,
archival tapes and transcripts, and a wide range of historical
resources, Bartoletti finds heartfelt memories of long hours, hard
labor, and extremely dangerous working conditions, as well as
lighter accounts of spirited rebellion, mischief, and bonding. The
immigrant experience is an integral part of this "coal culture" the
strength of ethnic groups and the prejudice against them, and their
banding together to form strong labor unions. As with most fine
juvenile nonfiction, this will also have great appeal for
adults.
Booklist, ALA, Starred Review Bartoletti uses oral history,
archival documents, and an abundance of black-and-white photographs
to make turn-of-the-century mining life a surprisingly compelling
subject for today's young people.
School Library Journal, Starred --
Bartoletti has written a concise, thoroughly researched account
of the often grim working and living conditions in Pennsylvania
coal towns. An accessible writing style, as well as the abundance
of stimulating information, makes for an engrossing historical
account. Quotes from personal interviews with miners, as well as
taped interviews and transcripts, provide a refreshing first person
frame of reference. Horn Book With compelling black-and-white
photographs of children at work in the coal mines of northeastern
Pennsylvania about 100 years ago, this handsome, spacious
photo-essay will draw browsers as well as students doing research
on labor and immigrant history. The story of these boys' lives are
a part of Russell Freedman's general overview Kids at Work (1994)
and of Betsy Harvey Kraft's biography Mother Jones (1995); but
there's a wealth of personal detail and family story here that
focuses on what it was like in the mines and in the homes and
communities of these working children. Lewis Hines' famous pictures
will grab readers, and Bartoletti has also gathered dozens of
archival photos and heartbreaking oral histories. They show what it
was like for eight-year-old breaker boys sorting coal surrounded by
deafening noise and black clouds of dust, steam, and smoke; what it
was like to be a mule driver underground; what it meant to be a
spragger, a butty, a nipper. Drawing on personal interviews,
archival tapes and transcripts, and a wide range of historical
resources, Bartoletti finds heartfelt memories of long hours, hard
labor, and extremely dangerous working conditions, as well as
lighter accounts of spirited rebellion, mischief, and bonding. The
immigrant experience is an integral part of this "coal culture" the
strength of ethnic groups and the prejudice against them, and their
banding together to form strong labor unions. As with most fine
juvenile nonfiction, this will also have great appeal for
adults.
Booklist, ALA, Starred Review Bartoletti uses oral history,
archival documents, and an abundance of black-and-white photographs
to make turn-of-the-century mining life a surprisingly compelling
subject for today's young people.
School Library Journal, Starred --
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