HIT: Middle/High School Industrial Revolution Novels

[Julie Purdy <purdyj@LINK75.ORG>]

I apologize to all for taking so long to compile this hit of Industrial
Revolution novels.  Things have been absolutely crazy!  I know that you
all can relate!  Thanks so much to all for contributing titles.  Once
again, I really appreciate the help.

This was the originial posting:
I have an 8th grade social studies teacher looking for some good YA/adult
fiction dealing with the Industrial Revolution/millwork/factories.  Her
classes are reading Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, and she would like to
offer some other choices to her more advanced readers.  We have The Clock
by the Colliers and The Blue Door by Ann Rinaldi, but I was wondering if
any of you out there have any other suggestions for me.  I have done an
interlibrary loan search which has yielded almost nothing!  I will post a
HIT.  Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated!


Here are the responses:

A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind by Athena Lord (may be out of print.  Lowell
mills, same as Lyddie, but Lyddie is more exciting.)

A Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh is excellent, set in England.  (Creep,
an abused child, goes back in time, semi-ghostlike, and works at a forge, a
ceramics factory, a mine and other worksites with child laborers.  Only the
miserable can see him.  Excellent background on industries and child
labor.)


While not EXACTLY one the same topic, how about "The Jungle" by Upton
Sinclair?

Try looking for books by Ouida Sebeyten, she wrote _Words by Hearts_.  I
seem
to remember one called _Fire_ about the steel industry.  Also an oldie by
Gloria Skurzynski also set in the steel mils.  (The title by Ouida
Sebestyen is On Fire)


A 6th grade just used Goodbye Billy Radish (sorry, the author escapes me)
about a Pennsylvania steel mill town seems like Pittsburgh.  Great story
which
includes WWI and immigrants (that's why the name "Billy Radish".
(Author of Goodbye Billy Radish is Gloria Skurzynski)

It's an adult book but one of my favorites: Call the Darkness Light by
Nancy Zaroulis (SP?) Probably not good for Middle School as it has the
young protagonist getting pregnant. It covers not only the mills but the
underground railroad movement as well as the Utopian movement. It ties
them all together in Massachusetts area.

Did you try Dale Copps site. He groups literature together on themes.

Also this site:
http://www.concord.k12.nh.us/schools/rundlett/booktalks/shistfic.html

has the historical fiction by date.


Try One-way to Ansonia by Judie Angell.  It might not be quite what you
want, but...

I see in the "Dear America" series published by Scholastic, there is a
book entitled,  So Far from Home : The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish
Mill Girl, by Barry Denenberg.  I have not seen this book, so cannot
vouch for it.  I have others in the series and they have been well
received by parents, students and teachers.

We Shall Not Be Moved: The Women's Factory Strike of 1909
   by Joan Dash
   Reading level: 9-12 yrs. old
   176 pp.
   pub. 1996


   The following general selection aid has 10 indexes, one of which is
the Time Period Index.  It is designed for grade 6-12; details over 1500
titles published from 1988-1992; and has a suggestions for further
reading section which lists titles published prior to 1988.  I found
this selection aid at a university library.  Perhaps your central office
personnel have such aids available or you could obtain it from some
large library.

            Spencer, Pam.  What Do Young Adults Read Next?:  a Reader's
Guide to Fiction for     Young Adults.  Detroit, MI:  Gale Research
Inc., 1994.

I don't know if these are still in print, but...
   A Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh
   The Black Lamp, by Peter Carter (may be to mature for 8th grade.)


*Midnight is a Place* by Joan Aiken (Conrad Aiken's daughter) is an
excellent novel on the IR in England.  It is a bit advanced, because of
the situations these two young people (5 or 6) and (9 or 10) find
themselves in...dealing with bully boys, a murderous employer, the death
of a small child who works in the factory.  But its well written,
exciting, there's a bit of a mystery and it certainly portrays the
effects of the IR on workers.

My book club just read a book called  CALL THE DARKNESS LIGHT by
Nancy Zaroulis. It is a Dickens style book about the women who
worked in the mills, but it is long and very detailed.  It is also a
little
mature for junior high.  But it certainly does depict life for the women
in the mills and women of that time.

Check out Dickens's Hard Times at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0451525280/1614-1895759-797995


We were planning to use the Industrial Revolution as an integrated
project next year. We found it difficult to find resources for the IR so
we opened it up to 1860-1900. This is what I found from the archives
Hannah's Fancy Notion, Out Of this Place by Hansen (1860's) , HomeFront by
Bailey...I am not sure if they are for the IR.


Thanks again to all who sent suggestions!  Your help is greatly
appreciated!

Julie Purdy
Mt. Ararat Middle School
Brunswick, Maine
Julie_Purdy@link75.org

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