One of our final two Dear Americas, drama and history meet in this moving diary of an Italian immigrant girl who works in a shirtwaist factory in New York, as the labor unions begin to organize.
Angela and her family have arrived in New York City from their village in Italy to find themselves settled in a small tenement apartment on the Lower East Side. When her father is no longer able to work, Angela must leave school and work in a shirtwaist factory.
Against the backdrop of the birth of the labor union movement in the early 1900s, Angela plays a part in the drama and turmoil that erupt as the workers begin to strike, protesting the terrible conditions in the sweatshops. And she records the horrors of the Triangle Factory fire and the triumphs and sorrows of the labor movement.---from the publisher
190 pages 978-0439221610 Ages 10-14
Keywords: diary, historical fiction, immigrants, immigration, family, New York, factory worker, labor union, worker's rights, American history, fire, disaster, grit, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old, part of a series, girls and women