Kids On Strike!

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Paperback, 2003

Description

Describes the conditions and treatment that drove workers, including many children, to various strikes, from the mill workers strikes in 1828 and 1836 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the work of Mother Jones on behalf of child workers.

Status

Available

Call number

331.892

Publication

HMH Books for Young Readers (2003), Edition: Illustrated, 208 pages

Collection

Media reviews

VOYA
Sherry York (VOYA, February 2000 (Vol. 22, No. 6)) Have children always been victims in the workplace? Did they ever fight back? What role did they play in organized labor? These questions are answered as the author adroitly evokes the social milieu in which strikes involving children occurred in
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Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania from 1836 through 1910. Numerous black-and-white archival photographs effectively illustrate the descriptions of people and events in this lively history. As social commentary and a vivid portrayal of historical events, this book achieves an ideal balance between factual reporting and proselytizing. Readers are able to assimilate data and form their own opinions. A time line of federal child labor laws begins in 1916 when the first laws were passed, continues through the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, and ends with a present-day statistic about the exploitation of children under age fourteen in industrialized and developing nations around the world. The bibliography includes general sources and chapter-by-chapter documentation. Bartoletti's unique scope creates a valuable resource for students researching labor movements or the role of children in American history or both. It can also provide supplemental reading for students in child development, history and the family, and economics classes. Bartoletti's background as a teacher is apparent; this nonfiction book invites reading for pleasure as well as information. Index. Illus. Photos. Biblio. Source Notes. Chronology. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing;
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1 more
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 1999 (Vol. 53, No. 4)) Although much has been written about child labor past and present, Bartoletti focuses here on children’s participation in organized labor actions. Eight substantial chapters cover various industries
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(from spinning to mining to shoe shining), and differing outcomes (from failed strikes to landmark gains) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Readers can observe a broad spectrum of children’s experiences--New York bootblacks who organized for relief from uniform rental fees; “newsies” whose business acumen (and outright cheating and deceit) kept their families afloat; young mine workers who testified at federally mandated arbitration hearings; children sent to foster homes (for safety and publicity) during the violent Lawrence, Massachusetts mill strike. Coverage does fall short in several key areas, though. Child farm labor is virtually ignored, black child laborers receive cursory attention, larger national issues of Socialism, anarchism, immigration, (and even the problem of defining the age of adulthood) are weakly addressed. Still, Bartoletti’s text and the bounty of period photographs are engaging enough to whet readers’ appetite for more, and extensive chapter-by-chapter bibliographies can lead serious upper-grade researchers onto more specific materials. An index and timetable of federal child labor laws are included.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member LDGardner
This larger information book describes the different conditions that have led to child-led strikes throughout history, and also goes into the development of Child Labor Laws. It begins with the spinning-room strikers, led by Harriet Hanson, who faced tough physical conditions and had to follow
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strict curfews and moral guidelines. She and others also attempted to gain equal rights for women in particular, especially younger women. Bartoletti also describes the newsie strikes in New York (how interesting to hear about the tricky things that the kids did for a few cents!), the rent strikes led by children who faced poor living conditions in tenements, and the Lawrence Strike, which represented a young girl who falsified her age in order to begin work, only to be put out of commission by a severe factory accident. The book sums up the history of child-led strikes nicely by ending on a positive note, the 1904 formation of the National Child Labor Committee, which worked to abolish child labor.
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LibraryThing member BKorfel
The pictures in this book make it much more of a real thing. I think it would really hit home with a younger audience because the stories are about kids their ages. Classroom use: I would use this as an enhancement activity for a Civil Rights unit. Students may not relate to other Civil Rights
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topics but when told that kids had to work who were their age I think it would be more relatable.
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LibraryThing member ababe92
I would use this book to teach my students about how back in the olden days they had children who worked since they were very little. I would recommend to every teacher.
LibraryThing member Marylee1973
A great book to introduce historically factual evidence in a literary way. This book does a great job of portraying what has happened in our nation with child labor.
LibraryThing member afussell
This was an interesting book about children going on strike. It takes you through several different strikes for children's rights. I would read this with middle age school students. It's important that they understand how lucky they are today to be in school.
LibraryThing member caseybp
This book was so interesting. I read it as I prepared to direct the musical Newsies. It could also be a valuable source for the musicals Carousel and Ragtime as well. It was very readable and had many beautiful pictures. I do wish there were more intext citations so we knew exactly where things
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came from.
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Language

Original language

English

ISBN

0618369236 / 9780618369232

UPC

046442369237
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