It's 1911 in New York City and the lives of three girls are about to come together. Jane comes from a rich family that expects her to follow the stereotypical role of parties and marriage and family. She wants more from life and is getting involved with the suffragettes and beginning to think for herself. Yetta has come from Russia and is working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and is working to bring better conditions for the workers by creating a strong union. Bella is newly arrived from Italy and wants so desperately to make money to send back home to her starving brothers and sisters. Her cousin, the handsome Pietro, finds her a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Bella struggles to adjust to factory life and then suddenly Pietro disappears and Bella is at the mercy of her landlady and the factory bosses. What lies before each of them is a mystery that is about to unfold during times of great social change.
346 pages 9781416911715 Ages 12 and up
Keywords: industrial revolution, factories, social issues, social conditions, fire, disasters, American history, women, immigrants, 12 year old, 13 year old, 14 year old
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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Around her the workers were screaming out prayers and curses.... She herself was sobbing tearlessly....Her only prayer was still, "I don't want to die."
Oh, please, God, don't let me die, she thought. I've never even had a chance to live.
Bella, newly arrived in New York from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. There, along with hundreds of other immigrants, she works long hours at a grueling job under terrible conditions. Yetta, a coworker from Russia, has been crusading for a union, and when factory conditions worsen, she helps workers rise up in a strike. Wealthy Jane learns of the plight of the workers and becomes involved with their cause.
Bella and Yetta are at work--and Jane is visiting the factory--on March 25, 1911, when a spark ignites some cloth and the building is engulfed in fire, leading to one of the worst workplace disasters ever.
Margaret Peterson Haddix draws on extensive historical research to bring the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to tangible life through her thrilling story of Bella, Yetta, and Jane.---from the publisher
