Monthly Special
Labor Day

Picture Books | Fiction | Nonfiction 

The books recommended below received starred reviews within the last several years. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.

Picture Books
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Kid Blink Beats the World written and illustrated by Don Brown (Roaring Brook)
Brown’s energetic illustrations enhance this empowering story of young New York “newsies” who stage a strike in response to raised prices. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

The Bobbin Girl written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully (Dial)
During the Industrial Revolution, ten-year old Rebecca joins the struggle for fair wages and working conditions. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child written by Francisco Jimenez (Houghton)
When immigration officials deport his family back to Mexico, young Francisco remains in California with his brother, toiling in the fields. Winner of the 1998 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction. Grade level: 7 and up. 116 pages.

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson (Clarion)
Jake and Rosa are unwillingly thrust into the turmoil of the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA. Grade level: 4–6. 275 pages.

Treasures in the Dust written by Tracey Porter (Cotler/HarperCollins)
Alternating between the stories of eleven-year-olds Annie and Violet, Porter paints a vivid picture of the trials two families face during the 1930s Oklahoma dust storms. Grade level 4–6. 151 pages.

Nonfiction
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Kids on Strike! by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Houghton)
This in-depth look at labor battles throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries uses specific stories and archival photographs to document children’s role in the workers’ rights movement. Grade level: 4–6. 208 pages.

Fire! The Beginnings of the Labor Movement written by Barbara Goldin, illustrated by James Watling (Viking)
Eleven-year old Rosie wants to leave school to work in the garment factories, but after witnessing a deadly factory fire, she begins to understand the importance of both education and labor unions. Grade level: 1–3. 54 pages.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez written by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Harcourt)
Focusing on a grape pickers’ strike, Krull uses Chavez to illustrate the reality of migrant workers’ lives and the attendant concepts of racism and nonviolent protest. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Big Annie of Calumet: A True Story of the Industrial Revolution by Jerry Stanley (Knopf)
Marching down the streets of Calumet with her massive American flag, six-foot tall Annie Clemenc embodies women’s role in the 1913 Michigan copper miners’ strike. Grade level: 4–6. 104 pages.

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