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Gripping, graphic, grousing, and grieving through each page, this stunning YA historical fiction is certainly not for the faint hearted. Rape and fiery death vie with myriad historical facts about immigrant life on the Lower East Side, the nascent garment workers’ labor movement and the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The plot moves straight forwardly from introduction of the protagonist family of pogrom scarred Russian Jews through their cultural and political mores to their loss in the disastrous 1911 fire. There is romance, dull and chaste, due to the novel’s narrator, an elevenyear- old girl, observing her eighteen-year-old sister, but too young to really get it. History creates the stronger drama; the focus of the plot is the labor union. Jewish customs are over-described because the book caters to a universal audience uninformed about Jewish religious practice, notably Shabbat and sitting shivah. The novel is a well written, quick read despite much historical information which educates readers, supplies foreboding, supports the foreshadowing and ironically suggests the avoidability of the tragedy. The biggest question is will it have an audience? The packaging of textbook like binding and slick paper pages make the volume appear to be nonfiction despite the romantic danger suggested by the cover art. Enslow Publishers, known for general non-fiction titles, has started this new series with three American-related, fictional stories set in different historical settings. The authors provide a very useful feature called, “The Real Story Behind the Story” at the end of the book, which should promote further reading on the subject. Middle school readers, older than the narrator, but younger than the victim, will like this sad adventure if they can get past the packaging. Ages 11 – 14.
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Ellen G. Cole, a retired librarian of the Levine Library of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, is a past judge of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards and a past chairperson of that committee. She is a co-author of the AJL guide, Excellence in Jewish Children’s Literature. Ellen is the recipient of two major awards for contribution to Judaic Librarianship, the Fanny Goldstein Merit Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Dorothy Schroeder Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries of Southern California. She is on the board of AJLSC.