Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
This is an excellent book that gives a great glimpse into the time period and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. It tackles all the issues of the era, provides us with intense and well built characters, twists us through real life historical events, the labor fight, all leading to the fire. There's an ominous sense of foreboding throughout the whole thing, balanced only by the friendship of the girl. That friendship sometimes is a little cheesy, but never uncomfortably so, and it makes the ending all the more tragic.
Haddix is visiting our school in March, so our library media specialist chose this book for the 8th graders to read. Not sure how my male students will react to this because it's sort of "girl-oriented," but I did like how Haddix connected three female characters from very different backgrounds using this historical event. There are some references to historical documents that will make this book common core friendly, so that's helpful. Haddix's Author's Note provides important context, as well.
The characters felt too flat for me. Also for a YA book, I felt the author treated the readers with kid gloves. Skimmed last half.
This was a very well-written piece of historical fiction. I loved all three characters of Bella, Yetta, and Jane. While I knew about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, I had not known about the preceding strike and how hard women caught for things we take advantage of today. I will be booktalking this one up to my students without a doubt.
Plenty of hooks:
Women's rights.
Workers' rights.
The American Dream.
Women's rights.
Workers' rights.
The American Dream.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
good but plot holes and incest
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest