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Narrated by Lesa Lockford
Michelle MarkelUnabridged — 12 minutes
Narrated by Lesa Lockford
Michelle MarkelUnabridged — 12 minutes
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…[a] sympathetic, fact-filled and moving story…In…Balloons Over Broadway…Melissa Sweet proved herself a fine hand at giving New York City street scenes their color. With her distinctive mixed-media collages, she may have surpassed herself here.
When immigrant Clara Lemlich arrived in New York City, she was “dirt poor, just five feet tall, and hardly a word of English,” but she wasn’t short on tenacity and determination. After becoming employed as a garment worker and witnessing firsthand the deplorable factory conditions, she began to organize her fellow workers. Markel doesn’t sugarcoat the obstacles and injuries Lemlich faced as she went on to lead the “largest walkout of women workers in U.S. history.” Sweet incorporates images of assorted fabrics and stitch patterns into her tender illustrations, brightening the lives of workers whose reality was bleak. Author’s agent: Anna Olswanger, Liza Dawson Associates. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)
The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards … This book has fighting spirit in spades-you go, Clara!” — Booklist (starred review)
“Readers are treated to solid information with a buoyant message about standing up for what is right. Sweet has created an outstanding backdrop for Markel’s text with a vibrant collage of watercolor, gouache, blank dress-pattern paper, bookkeeping pages, stitches, and fabric pieces.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“Sweet incorporates images of assorted fabrics and stitch patterns into her tender illustrations, brightening the lives of workers whose reality was bleak.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In her simple but powerful text Markel shows how multiple arrests, serious physical attacks, and endless misogyny failed to deter this remarkable woman as she set off on her lifelong path as a union activist.” — The Horn Book
“Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara’s courageous advocacy.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
In her simple but powerful text Markel shows how multiple arrests, serious physical attacks, and endless misogyny failed to deter this remarkable woman as she set off on her lifelong path as a union activist.
The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards … This book has fighting spirit in spades-you go, Clara!
Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara’s courageous advocacy.
Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara’s courageous advocacy.
"The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards … This book has fighting spirit in spades-you go, Clara!"
“Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara’s courageous advocacy.
12/01/2014
K-Gr 3—Ukrainian immigrant Clara Lemlich began working at a textile factory a mere two weeks after arriving in New York, working 11 hours a day, six days a week, for a pittance. Frustrated by the working conditions she and so many others—some as young as 12 years old—faced, Clara put herself in peril by leading picket lines and organizing strikes. In 1909, at the age of 23, she incited the famous Uprising of the Twenty Thousand, which ultimately led to concessions by factory owners and the creation of workers' unions across the United States. In this simple picture book biography, Markel makes the plight of brave Clara and many others like her accessible to a young audience. The recording itself is straightforward; the only adornment to Lesa Lockford's smooth, authoritative voicing is merry Klezmer music that fades out as the narration begins. There are no page turn signals or pauses long enough to allow small fingers to turn the page quickly enough to keep up with the narration. If following along with the book, nonreaders or beginning readers will struggle. The book's text and end notes about the garment industry are read aloud by Lockford. This is a compelling story simplified for a young audience but translated to audio with an older audience in mind.—Jennifer Verbrugge, Minnesota Department of Education, Roseville, MN
K-Gr 3—This picture-book biography of Clara Lemlich, a spitfire who fought hard for better working conditions, is an engaging, informative introduction to her activism as well as to the deplorable state of the U.S. garment industry in the early 1900s. Ukrainian-born Lemlich came to the United States with her parents to escape the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, only to be thrust into another appalling nightmare: the American shirtwaist factories. She began on a small scale to encourage her coworkers to strike, but at a union meeting, when even men wouldn't call for a walkout, she rose and shouted to the large gathering that the time for a strike was now, inspiring tens of thousands of women to leave their stations in the factories. Markel's style is clean and clear, making Lemlich's story accessible to a young audience. Readers are treated to solid information with a buoyant message about standing up for what is right. Sweet has created an outstanding backdrop for Markel's text with a vibrant collage of watercolor, gouache, blank dress-pattern paper, bookkeeping pages, stitches, and fabric pieces. This spirited account concludes with additional material on the garment industry and a solid bibliography. A first purchase.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR
Lesa Lockford’s narration is as quiet and firm as heroine Clara Lemlich, who resolved to change the working conditions of American women and girls in the New York garment industry. In the early twentieth century, immigrant Clara navigates the hardships facing young factory workers and steels her determination to better herself through night school. She then sets out to improve the lives of her female co-workers through labor strikes. Lockford’s use of inflection underscores Clara’s grit as shown in her pursuit of literacy and her admonition to “stand fast, girls” when it comes time to strike. Through well-timed pauses, Lockford illuminates key facts of Clara’s story, for example, that the 1909 walkout was the largest women’s strike in United States history. A.R. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
A sparkling picture-book biography of the dauntless organizer of the titular strike. Immigrant Clara Lemlich was tiny and spoke little English, but she not only worked to support her family in a factory that made women's clothing, but read and studied at night. When the male workers talked about a strike to protest their fearsome working conditions, they thought the girls weren't strong enough to join them. But it was Clara who finally--in Yiddish--called for a general strike. She was arrested 17 times and beaten, but the strike won the right to unionize for workers in many factories (but not the Triangle Waist Factory, whose gruesome fire claimed 146 lives in 1911). Markel's text is well-supported by Sweet's watercolor, gouache and mixed-media images, some clearly based on archival photographs. What catches the heart are the bits of stitching on cloth ribbons that outline or accent some of the pages and the sweet, determined faces of these girls. They were girls indeed, some as young as 12, most in their teens and early 20s. A bibliography of primary and secondary sources and a note about the garment industry fills in some more background, including Clara's further work in the labor movement, and the fact that 70 percent of the workers were between 16 and 25 and that most were Eastern European Jews and Italians. Very fine indeed. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
| BN ID: | 2940175395007 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dreamscape Media |
| Publication date: | 08/05/2014 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | Up to 4 Years |
