A gorgeously told novel in verse written with intimacy and power, Audacity is inspired by the real-life story of Clara Lemlich, a spirited young woman who emigrated from Russia to New York at the turn of the twentieth century and fought tenaciously for equal rights.
Based on the real life of Clara Lemlich, a Russian Jewish immigrant, this novel in verse tells the story of a determined and tenacious young woman's struggle for equal rights. Bucking the norms of both her traditional Jewish family and societal pressures and expectations, Clara refuses to accept substandard working conditions in the factories on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Instead, she devotes herself to the labor fight, speaking up, picketing, and enduring multiple jailings and severe beatings. Undeterred and resolute in her cause, Clara remains strong and, in time, persuades the women in the factories to strike, organize, and unionize, culminating in the famous Uprising of the 20,000 the largest strike by women in American history.
384 pages 978-0399168994 Ages 12 and up
Keywords: immigrants, industrial revolution, women's rights, equal rights, novel in verse, factories, Social Studies Curriculum, American history, 12 year old, 13 year old, 14 year old, social issues, social conditions, social activists
