Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Amazon Children's Publishing (2009), Hardcover, 242 pages
Description
In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and grief that Essie is trying desperately to escape.
Awards
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Mass Import -- Pending Differentiation)
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Nominee — 2013)
National Jewish Book Award (Finalist — Children’s and Young Adult Literature — 2009)
Westchester Fiction Award (Winner — 2010)
Julia Ward Howe Book Award (Winner — 2010)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2010)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member mhg123
Essie can tell from the moment she lays eyes on Harriet Abbott: this
is a woman who has taken a wrong turn in life. Why else would an
educated, well-dressed, clearly upper-crust girl end up in the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory setting sleeves for six dollars a day? But Harriet
isn't the only one who is
of her love for the young would-be lawyer who lives next door and
her hatred for her mother who seems determined to take away every bit
of happiness that Essie hopes to find. As the unlikely friendship between
Essie and Harriet grows, so does the weight of the question hanging
between them: Who is lost? And who will be found?
is a woman who has taken a wrong turn in life. Why else would an
educated, well-dressed, clearly upper-crust girl end up in the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory setting sleeves for six dollars a day? But Harriet
isn't the only one who is
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lost. Essie wanders between the opposing emotionsof her love for the young would-be lawyer who lives next door and
her hatred for her mother who seems determined to take away every bit
of happiness that Essie hopes to find. As the unlikely friendship between
Essie and Harriet grows, so does the weight of the question hanging
between them: Who is lost? And who will be found?
Show Less
LibraryThing member catherinea
"It's a terrible thing to lose someone you love. I heard about a man once who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge because his wife had died, and when he hit the water, it ripped the clothes right off him. The police fished his body out of the East River, and he was completely naked. Grief is like that.
"It's like if you're on a street corner and someone next to you says, "I lost a penny," you would take a look around and do your best to help find it. Sure, you would. But if someone on that same corner says, "I lost a diamond ring," you would get down on your hands and knees and search 'til the sun went down. And the next day, you'd come back and start looking all over again. And then every time you passed that corner, you'd think to yourself, "I wonder if they ever found that diamond ring," and I bet your eyes would wander to the ground and have another look. For years and years." (p138)
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You smash up against it, and it rips all the outer parts of you away. You're left naked in front of everybody." (p71)"It's like if you're on a street corner and someone next to you says, "I lost a penny," you would take a look around and do your best to help find it. Sure, you would. But if someone on that same corner says, "I lost a diamond ring," you would get down on your hands and knees and search 'til the sun went down. And the next day, you'd come back and start looking all over again. And then every time you passed that corner, you'd think to yourself, "I wonder if they ever found that diamond ring," and I bet your eyes would wander to the ground and have another look. For years and years." (p138)
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LibraryThing member prkcs
In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and
Show More
grief that Essie is trying desperately to escape. Show Less
LibraryThing member ChristianR
An interesting story about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan in the early 1900's. Essie is a poor Jew who has to start working at age 16. She also is her younger sister's de facto mother. Her mother, widowed while pregnant, did not have the energy for another child. Something was
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nagging Essie about her little sister throughout the book, and while the reader understands that the sister died recently, Essie chooses to believe that she is simply hiding. Meanwhile, Essie makes friends with a new girl at the factory who is obviously much more refined than the others. While the book has a lot going for it, I have quibbles about several things. The memories of the little sister made her seem more like a very annoying and out of control little girl rather than an endearing high spirited child, as she is supposed to seem. The outcome of the fire is pretty obvious. Clearly, the new girl is going to die in the fire because her life situation is hopeless. Essie, though, lives and all of the bad things in her life get wrapped up pretty neatly after the fire. It was all resolved just a little too well. Show Less
LibraryThing member MrsHillReads
Wonderful fiction about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the women (girls) who worked there. The part about the missing heiress seemed a little weak, but the working conditions and the Zelda's home life felt authentic. Painless way to learn about a part of American history!
LibraryThing member Mirandalg14
A great historical novel about two events I've never heard of before.
ISBN
0761455353 / 9780761455356