National Network for Equitable Library Service

his compelling book blends the horrific facts of child labor during the early twentieth century with the imaginary story of one underage factory girl. At 12, Emily is two years under the legal working age, but to help her desperate family, she takes a job in a sweatshop, where she suffers under horrific working conditions. At first she is scared to protest, but public pressure to improve conditions builds, thanks to union activists, social reformers (including Jane Addams), and journalists. The fiction about Emily is contrived, even intrusive. It's the history that is riveting (some drawn from testimony at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory trial)