Digging a Hole to Heaven: Coal Miner Boys

Award-winning author and illustrator S. D. Nelson reveals the grim realities of child labor in the coal mining industry in this unique picture book

Conall is only twelve years old, but he’s already worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania for several years. He spends his days deep underground with his faithful mule, Angel, carting loads of coal from the coal seams to the main shaft. There, elevators take the coal up to the surface. One day a tunnel collapses, and his brother and other mine...