Florence Kelley (On My Own Biographies)

Saller, Carol

ISBN 10: 1575050161 ISBN 13: 9781575050164

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books, 1997

Synopsis

A biography of the determined woman who worked to improve the lives of children, the poor, and adult workers

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-3-Born in 1859, Florence Kelley dedicated her life to studying the poor and trying to improve working conditions for children. Her detailed reports on conditions in slums and factories eventually led to the Illinois legislature limiting workdays to 8 hours and banning work by those under 14. To enforce the laws, the governor made Kelley the first Chief Factory Inspector in the state. Finding few willing to sue the factories, she attended law school so she could personally take the owners to court. Kelley eventually took her fight to the national level, creating the United States Children's Bureau. Although Kelley was an important figure in the fight against child labor, readers are left without any real sense of the true person behind the biographical facts. Large gaps of her life are left undiscussed. In addition, this beginning reader has an annoying design flaw. Short histories of real child workers are interspersed with the narrative. Although set in italics, they are not set off from the main text in any other way, and children may be confused by the abrupt transitions. Undistinguished paintings appear throughout.?Melissa Hudak, Northern Illinois Medical Center, McHenry, IL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 2-4. The history of child labor in the U.S. is getting increasing attention now, with several YA biographies of Mother Jones and such books as Susan Bartoletti's Growing Up in Coal Country (1996). This simple, illustrated account in the On My Own Biographies series tells about it for a young audience, weaving together the life story of the labor leader Florence Kelley and a description of the working conditions she fought to change. The color illustrations don't work as well as documentary photos (especially since several paintings show older teenagers and adults, rather than children), but there are stirring portraits of Kelley and of children bent over piecework at home. What will grab readers are the vignettes of individual children laboring in factories, fields, and mines, and also the final page about kids today who must work long hours in dangerous places. Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1575050161
• ISBN 13: 9781575050164
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Green Ken