Counting on Grace
Random House Children's Books · Print & ebook · August 14, 2007
A Historical Fiction pick for readers exploring Counting on Grace.
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- Who it’s for
- A child’s view makes mill labor, family duty, and the wish to learn feel immediate.
- Themes
- Child labor, Family responsibility, Changing sense of self
- Genres
- 20th-Century U.S., Girls & Young Women, Jobs & Careers
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Start with this bookAbout this book
1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher.
Continue reading
Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.
Work and Possibility
A child’s view makes mill labor, family duty, and the wish to learn feel immediate.
Come here for
- A child’s-eye view of early twentieth-century mill work
- The pull between family duty and a child’s wish to learn
Expect
- An intimate, serious perspective on work and family
- A story that leaves room for hope
Where it sits
| 20th-Century U.S. | 92% |
|---|---|
| Girls & Young Women | 39% |
| Jobs & Careers | 38% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Jobs & Careers
- 20th-Century U.S.
- Homelessness & Poverty
- Authors
- Elizabeth Winthrop
- Publisher
- Random House Children's Books
- Published
- August 14, 2007
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Child labor · Family responsibility · Changing sense of self
- Reading lane
- Jobs & Careers