The Locket: Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Historical Fiction Adventures) [Library Binding]

Suzanne Lieurance (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

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.

Editorial Reviews

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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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Library Binding: 160 pages
• Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc. (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076602928X
• ISBN-13: 978-0766029286
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,048,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast-paced, gripping story hard to put down., May 8, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Locket: Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Historical Fiction Adventures) (Library Binding)

Suzanne Lieurance's THE LOCKET: SURVIVING THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE tells of Galena, who lives in New York and works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory with her sister - until a horrible fire changes her life. The fictionalization of a real historical event and the dramatization of early labor issues involves reader in a fast-paced, gripping story hard to put down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Life Drama, July 6, 2008

By 

C. Dutra "Carma's Window" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Locket: Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Historical Fiction Adventures) (Library Binding)

The Locket Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a historical fiction novel written for ages 9 to 12. It tells the story of Galena, an eleven year old Russian-Jewish immigrant who lives in New York City in 1911 with her family and works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory with her older sister Anya. The factory pays low wages, has horrendous working conditions and employs under age children like Galena. In the early 1900's joining the union was a dangerous thing to do but Anya longed to improve working conditions for abused workers. Soon a horrible fire erupts and destroys the Triangle Shirt Factory and shatters a young girls dream.

Author, Suzanne Lieurance weaves the fictional and non-fictional aspects of this historical story with ease. By using dramatic factual accounts of an historical event using realistic fictional characters, Suzanne brings the reader inside the ill-fated factory. Lieurance's account is truly a step back in time to understand how a young Jewish immigrant girl uses the support of her Jewish traditions, family and friends for inspiration to fight for workers rights.

The Locket also has a teacher's guide available for teachers and parents to use. Go to Enslow Publishing www.enslow.com and click on "what's new". Scroll down to Historical Fiction Adventures and click on The Locket. Next click on "Free educator's guide. This guide is a fantastic supplement with additional reading suggestions, discussion questions and other activities.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Graphically violent book not suitable for this age group, March 8, 2010

By 

concerned mother (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Locket: Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Historical Fiction Adventures) (Library Binding)

My daughter, who is 10, read this book and was very upset by the graphic descriptions of the deaths from the fire this book fictionalizes. She has read many books with mature material of a sad or upsetting nature such as the Holocost. But the degree this author goes to describe the gruesome nature of these girls dying is very inappropriate. Many passages dwell at length on horrifying scenes of young girls jumping to their deaths to escape the burning building. Morbid descriptions abound about the mountains of bodies lying about. And when several unidentified bodies are buried, the author includes the following: "I could not understand why there were eight coffins until one of the officials explained that the eigth coffin contains the dismembered fragments picked up at the fire by the police." This is certainly not material I think a ten year old is able to manage. The subject matter certainly, this author's macabre style definately not.