Bread and Roses, Too

July 17, 2006
Returning to themes she explored in Lyddie
, Paterson sets this novel in the winter of 1912 in Lawrence, Mass., where the plight of textile mill workers unfolds through the alternating third-person perspectives of a boy millworker, Jake Beale, and Rosa Serutti, whose mother and sister work in the mill. The two meet when sixth-grader Rosa looks for her discarded shoes in the trash heap where 13-year-old Jake, who has fled his abusive, alcoholic father, plans to sleep for the night. Though they do not introduce themselves, Rosa offers the boy her family's kitchen floor for the night. Their paths cross again, most notably after the workers strike, and violence escalates to the point where striking parents send their children to families who support the union cause in New York City and Vermont. Rosa, headed to Vermont, helps Jake escape with her. The book feels like two stories in one: the first part immersed in details of the historical strike (an endnote lays out the facts), and the second part set in Barre, Vt. Unlike Lyddie, Rosa is a bystander to the workers' plight (though she does come up with the title mantra for the strikers), so readers may find her character elusive until the book's second half. Jake eventually becomes sympathetic, but mostly due to the kindness of the memorable Mr. Gerbati, the children's foster father and a gifted Vermont stonecutter. Readers may wish for an entire book about this gentle man. Ages 10-14.

January 8, 2007
Raver masters an impressive range of character voices—from recent Italian immigrants to America, to worried or wisecracking children and a shrill, know-it-all schoolteacher—in this recording of Paterson's novel about a historic 1912 labor strike in the Lawrence, Mass., textile mills. When her widowed mother and older sister join the strikers at the mill, young Rosa is sent temporarily from her family's tenement apartment to a foster family in Vermont for safekeeping. On the journey she discovers that an orphan boy from her town has stowed away on the train and wants to pose as her brother in Vermont. As the children adapt to—and later confess—their fib, listeners glean a wealth of historical background about the strengths and struggles in communities of Italian and other European immigrants in New England at that time. Paterson's story comes full-circle nicely, but lacks the strong character development and a certain drama that would make it a more compelling listen. Ages 10-up.

Starred review from September 1, 2006
Gr 5-8 -Paterson has drawn upon the facts of the famous 1912 Bread and Roses strike in the mills of Lawrence, MA, and the sympathetic response of the citizens of Barre, VT, to tell the story of two children enmeshed in complex events. Rosa Serutti -s mother and older sister work in the mills and are joining the protest against unfair labor practices. Jake Beale works there to keep himself and his alcoholic father alive. As the strike turns ugly, arrangements are made for children to leave Lawrence temporarily, and Rosa is sent to an elderly couple, the Gerbatis, in Barre. After a terrifying incident in which he finds his father dead, Jake sneaks onto the train, mistaking its destination as New York City. He convinces Rosa to say he is her older brother and to persuade the Gerbatis to keep him, too. Illiterate -Sal - begs off going to school, working instead in Mr. Gerbati -s stonecutting business where, despite fair treatment, the temptation to steal overwhelms him. Caught in the act, he learns that the forbidding man is really a compassionate soul who gives him the chance he needs to make a new life for himself. Paterson has skillfully woven true events and real historical figures into the fictional story and created vivid settings, clearly drawn characters, and a strong sense of the hardship and injustice faced by the mostly immigrant mill workers. Ethnic rivalries and prejudices play an important role, and the alternating points of view of Rosa and Jake allow for a broader picture and add tension and balance." -Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2006
Gr. 5-8. Rosa, 12, wants to be an educated "civilized" American and she hates it when her militant Italian immigrant mother and sister join the mill workers' strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912. Jake, 13, is native-born and homeless, trying to work, sometimes finding shelter in Rosa's crowded tenement home. From the two kids' alternating viewpoints--angry, kind, desperate--Paterson brings close the labor history, especially the role of women and children, their work and daily struggle, and their drive to form a union, led by famous anarchist ("atheist!") strike leaders from across the country. In the second part of the book the children are sent to safety with sympathetic Italian American families in Barre, Vermont, where Jake finds a loving home and satisfying work at last. The immigrant labor struggle is stirring and dramatic, with connections to contemporary issues: prejudice against immigrants (in this case, "wops"); newcomers' struggling with English. In a lengthy note Paterson fills in the exciting union history, but as in " The Great Gilly Hopkins "(1987), it is the kindness between the mean foster kid and a tough, needy adult (a dad this time) that breaks your heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2007
This tale is about two children caught up in the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Jake labors in the textile mills, and Rosa goes to school while her mother and sister toil. Both Jake and Rosa are unwilling coattail participants in the labor action. The themes (e.g., children forced by circumstance to an unnatural self-reliance) are familiar--but nobody does them better.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)