{"id":37260,"date":"2024-05-11T21:35:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T01:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37260"},"modified":"2024-05-11T21:35:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T01:35:15","slug":"review-of-mother-jones-and-her-army-of-mill-children-by-jonah-winter-illustrated-by-nancy-carpenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37260","title":{"rendered":"Review of Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children, by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children<\/em><\/p>\n

by Jonah Winter
\nillustrated by Nancy Carpenter<\/p>\n

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020. 36 pages.
\nReview written February 27, 2020, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

The topic of this picture book biography stirred me up besides telling me about someone I hadn\u2019t known much about. Mother Jones \u2013 Mary Harris Jones \u2013 was the \u201cgrandmother of all agitators.\u201d She spoke out strongly against oppressive labor conditions, and especially about child labor. The title and the focus of the book are about a Children\u2019s March where she led mill children on a protest march from Philadelphia to New York City in 1903, which she called the Children\u2019s Crusade.<\/p>\n

The book is written in first person from Mother Jones\u2019 perspective. Quotes from her speeches are used in a few places, and famous quotes are included on the endpapers. All caps are used in places to convey her anger at injustice.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve seen lots of things to get RILED UP about, but the worst thing I ever<\/em><\/strong> saw was in the fabric mills of Philadelphia. I saw children YOUR AGE \u2013 nine and ten years old \u2013 who worked like grown-ups, forced to stand on their feet for TEN HOURS STRAIGHT, tying threads to spinning spools, reaching their hands inside the dangerous machines that make the fabric, sometimes getting skirts caught, sometimes getting hair caught, sometimes hands or legs, working for hours and hours, never resting, breathing deadly dust \u2013 robbed of their childhoods, robbed of their dreams, and all for a measly TWO CENTS AN HOUR, while outside the birds sang and the blue sky shone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The majority of the book is about the Children\u2019s March. They didn\u2019t stop at New York City, but marched on to the summer home of President Theodore Roosevelt on Long Island \u2013 where he refused to see them.<\/p>\n

But the actions of Mother Jones ended up resulting in child labor laws that are still in effect today.<\/p>\n

I liked that the artist used a dark palette for this book, with sobering pictures of the kids \u2013 as well as happier pictures, such as when the kids tried out the rides on Coney Island.<\/p>\n

This book gives an important story, and I\u2019m glad I learned about it. It\u2019s told in a way that kids can appreciate a woman \u2013 and children \u2013 who made a big difference.<\/p>\n

nancycarpenter.website<\/a>
\nrhcbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children by Jonah Winter illustrated by Nancy Carpenter Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020. 36 pages. Review written February 27, 2020, from a library book Starred Review The topic of this picture book biography stirred me up besides telling me about someone I hadn\u2019t known much about. Mother Jones […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-history","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43752,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37260\/revisions\/43752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}