Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. Rosa, 12, wants to be an educated civilized American and she hates it when her militant Italian immigrant mother and sister join the mill workers' strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912. Jake, 13, is native-born and homeless, trying to work, sometimes finding shelter in Rosa's crowded tenement home. From the two kids' alternating viewpoints--angry, kind, desperate--Paterson brings close the labor history, especially the role of women and children, their work and daily struggle, and their drive to form a union, led by famous anarchist (atheist! ) strike leaders from across the country. In the second part of the book the children are sent to safety with sympathetic Italian American families in Barre, Vermont, where Jake finds a loving home and satisfying work at last. The immigrant labor struggle is stirring and dramatic, with connections to contemporary issues: prejudice against immigrants (in this case, wops ); newcomers' struggling with English. In a lengthy note Paterson fills in the exciting union history, but as in The Great Gilly Hopkins (1987), it is the kindness between the mean foster kid and a tough, needy adult (a dad this time) that breaks your heart. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Raver masters an impressive range of character voices-from recent Italian immigrants to America, to worried or wisecracking children and a shrill, know-it-all schoolteacher-in this recording of Paterson's novel about a historic 1912 labor strike in the Lawrence, Mass., textile mills. When her widowed mother and older sister join the strikers at the mill, young Rosa is sent temporarily from her family's tenement apartment to a foster family in Vermont for safekeeping. On the journey she discovers that an orphan boy from her town has stowed away on the train and wants to pose as her brother in Vermont. As the children adapt to-and later confess-their fib, listeners glean a wealth of historical background about the strengths and struggles in communities of Italian and other European immigrants in New England at that time. Paterson's story comes full-circle nicely, but lacks the strong character development and a certain drama that would make it a more compelling listen. Ages 10-up. (Nov. 2006) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8--Katherine Paterson returns to Massachusetts mill history with the 1912 Lawrence strike as the backdrop for this novel (Clarion, 2006). Jake, an illiterate boy from the mills, is befriended by Rosa, whose mother and sister are also on strike. Though they are both poor, Rosa's loving family sends her to school, while Jake must fend for himself and his abusive, alcoholic father. The clashes between strikers and the local authorities have Rosa worried about her family's safety, and Jake is looking for food and shelter. When Rosa's mother sends her to Barre, Vermont, one of several places where union sympathizers are caring for children caught in increasing violence, Jake stows away on the train. The resolution of the strike allows Rosa to return home safely, but Jake, haunted by a terrible secret, commits a rash act that could cost him his first real home. Laura Bayer effectively conveys the story's wide range of emotions, and convincingly employs various accents to present the diversity of a turn-of-the-century mill town. While the novel can stand alone as a powerful story about overcoming adversity, pairing it with Lyddie (Dutton, 1991), the author's look at Lowell mill girls, will give listeners valuable insight into this aspect of American history. Paterson has again created characters worth caring about, but Jake's and Rosa's struggles will also spark dialogue on the hardships faced by an earlier generation of immigrants that has relevance today.--Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) Paterson returns to the mills of New England (Lyddie, rev. 5/91) for this tale of two children caught up in the so-called Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Jake, a ""native-born,"" labors in the textile mills to purchase enough whiskey to keep his Pa from beating him. Italian immigrant Rosa goes to school, determined to make a better life for herself, while her mother and sister toil. Both Jake and Rosa are unwilling coattail participants in the labor action, the one carried along by co-workers, the other increasingly distressed by her striking mother's fervor, and both are equally unwilling evacuees to Barre, Vermont, as part of a program to help the children of the strikers. By focusing her tale through the experiences of these two relatively uninvolved protagonists, Paterson elides much potentially narrative-clogging background filler (provided in an author's note at the end), the modern reader's unfamiliarity with the particulars finding a mirror in Jake's and Rosa's bewilderment. The children act as foils to each other, Rosa's faith and optimism showing the nihilistic Jake the way. The themes are familiar -- children forced by circumstance to an unnatural self-reliance; the necessity of embracing the risk of trust -- but nobody does them better. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Known as the Bread and Roses strike, the 1912 mill workers' protest against working conditions in the mills of Lawrence, Mass., is the historical context for Paterson's latest work, a beautifully written novel that puts a human face on history. When young Rosa Serutti, looking for shoes she's hidden, meets Jake Beale sleeping in a trash pile, the two become acquaintances and, eventually, part of a family of sorts. When conditions in Lawrence turn dangerous, "shoe girl" Rosa and "Rosa's rat" Jake are among the many children sent "on vacation" to host families in cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Barre, Vt., a part of American history not often covered in textbooks. Readers will be totally wrapped up in the stories of Rosa and Jake, Mrs. Serutti and older daughter Anna, both active in the strike, and Mr. and Mrs. Gerbati, the host family in Barre. The history is neatly woven into this story that explores the true meaning of community and family in hard times. A fine historical note provides additional background. Paterson at her best--and that's saying a lot. (acknowledgments) (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
