The Locket
Galena, an eleven-year-old Russian-Jewish immigrant, lives in New York City with her family and works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory with her older sister Anya. The factory pays low wages and has terrible working conditions, making Anya yearn to join a union. Soon a horrible fire guts the factory leaving Galena with painful, horrific memories. Follow author Suzanne Lieurance in this dramatic historical fiction novel, as she describes how Galena uses the support of friends, family, and Jewish traditions to inspire her to fight for workers rights.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4–6—Eleven-year-old Galena and her older sister, Anya, are Russian-Jewish immigrants living with their parents in a one-room tenement apartment in New York City. Six days a week the girls walk to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Each morning Galena asks to see the pictures of family members inside the gold locket Anya wears around her neck before she and her sister part to work on different floors. Low wages and poor working conditions cause Anya to consider joining a union, whereas Galena remains conflicted and loyal to her “Old World” mother, who forbids such activities. Galena resents the growing friendship and influence Dmitri, a young man working at a unionized factory, has with her sister. When fire breaks out at the Triangle and Anya dies, the pair must search for her body (identifiable by the locket). Galena comes to understand the fear behind her mother’s resistance to change and chooses to attend a mass funeral and union meeting with Dmitri. Woven together in perfect compatibility, the historical background and fictional plot give readers a clear insight into Jewish immigrants and ritual (sitting shivah after a death in the family), and unfair labor practices, and there is excellent foreshadowing of the fire. Back matter includes a discussion of the disaster and archival photos.—D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH
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The Reveres: A Family Forced Apart
Title: The Reveres: A Family Forced Apart
Early America (Building Fluency Through Reader’s Theater) (Paperback)
# Reading level: Ages 9-12
# Paperback: 24 pages
# Publisher: Teacher Created Materials; Ill edition (February 25, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0743905490
# ISBN-13: 978-0743905497
School Projects for Pennies
November 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
My First Review for The Lucky Baseball
It’s always a bit exciting – and sometimes scary – to read reviews of my books. I guess I’ll just never get over the amazement I feel when I learn that someone has actually READ something I wrote!
Here’s the first review from Booklist:
“. . . folds uplifting messages of community strength into its child’s view of racial discrimination and internment.”
–Booklist, September 1, 2009
Space Shuttle Challenger
November 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Shoelaces
An African American girl describes the joys of all different kinds of shoelaces in this Rookie Reader beginning reader.
All Rookie Readers actively engage young readers, encouraging language development, building fluency, and promoting independent reading. By targeting a skill, like learning about rhymes, young readers are building fundamental reading skills with the help of fun, lively, colorfully illustrated stories.
The Ancient Maya
This book is part of the Civilizations of the Ancient World series from Enslow Publishers.
The Prohibition Era in American History
This book is part of Enslow Publishers’ In American History series.
Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just 6 Weeks
November 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Writing for Children
If you’ve been struggling to become a published children’s writer with little or no success, chances are you haven’t spent the time, money, and effort required to first learn the “business” of writing for children.
And writing and publishing for children IS a business.
Creating a marketable manuscript for children means more than simply writing a cute little story with kids as the main characters. Writers also need to know the business of writing for children, which includes many tricks of the trade.
You’ll learn all those tricks of the trade, plus much more, in my new 6-week e-course for aspiring children’s writers.
Philippines
Learn about the Philippines in Suzanne Lieurance’s book in the Top Ten Countries of Recent Immigrants series. Lieurance examines the land, people, government, economy, and culture of the Philippines as well as the contributions that immigrants to the United States from the Philippines have made to American life.
“This book . . . provides excellent information about basic aspects of the country and people of the Philippines.”
–Lincoln Public Schools, February 2005
