Counting on Grace

Twelve-year-old Grace, daughter of immigrant parents from Canada, is a bouncing, energetic, vivacious rural Vermonter. Grace is torn between her teacher's desire for her to make a better life through education and her mother's desire for her to work in the mills to support her family. Highly intelligent Grace is eager to grow up and go to work, but discovers that, being left handed, she is less capable than the other workers. One day, Lewis Hine, a photographer, comes to secretly investigate the mill and takes Grace's picture. This fantastically well-written book (completely in Grace's voice) is one of the best young adult novels I've ever read. Grace's world is very real, from the detailed descriptions of the mill to the characters that surround her and determine her destiny. The historical tale (set in 1910) makes us, as Lewis Hine's photographs do, look directly into the eyes of the child labor issue. Grace, in her excitement and need to work in the mills to provide for her family, but her even deeper need to do more with her life. Grace--as all young teenagers do--must face her domineering mother's expectations for her life and to become her own person. A beautiful, funny, clever, well-characterized, poignant, and powerful novel. Grade: A

Although identified as a children's book, "Counting on Grace" is a book that should reward readers of all ages. The author, with great skill and sensitivity, weaves a fictional account of a young girl who is forced to work in the local cotton mill with historical fact about the documentation of these conditions. especially by the renown photographer of working children, Lewis Hines. With three grandchildren exactly the age of Grace, I found this gripping story provided a rare look at how some children were forced to enter the adult world, with its difficulties and dangers, and were summarily deprived of their childhood and education. This is a unique look at mill towns and the people and families who struggled there at the turn of the 20th century. I highly recommend "Counting on Grace" for readers whatever their age.

When a children's author wishes to write a piece of historical fiction, there are a number of ways to do so. They can write about a specific historical moment. The fall of Pompeii, for example, or perhaps a battle during the Civil War. They can also just pick a period in time rather than any one single moment. The most difficult historical fiction, however, is when an author decides to incorporate a real person into their fictional narrative. This technique is a staple of poorly written children's books. You know what I mean. The old idea that falls along the lines of Martin Luther King Jr. meets a kid from the future and teaches him a valuable lesson, yadda yadda yadda. Ugh. It takes a careful hand and a steady talent to do what Elizabeth Winthrop has accomplished with, "Counting On Grace". Winthrop knows that if you were going to write a book where, for example, a small girl meets someone like Lewis Hine, you're going to have to give your hero (not the historical figure) enough of a backstory and life to make her just as real as Hine himself. The joy of "Counting On Grace" is that even though this is a story about a horrific time concerning horrific events, it's not depressing or much in the way of a downer. It's a beautiful, emotional, remarkable little book. Mangled hands and all. Grace can't stand still. Every day her family goes to work in a Vermont cotton mill while she goes to school with the other mill children. She's a good student, of course, but she can't even read without her feet dancing about. That changes fairly soon, however, and much to her delight. She and her friend Arthur are going to go work on their mothers' machines in the mill, she willingly, he unwilling. But finally making some money for her family isn't as much fun as Grace had anticipated. She's incredibly tired and Arthur seems to have a dangerous plan in mind for getting out of working. It isn't until the two kids help their former teacher Miss Lesley contact the authorities about the working conditions of the mill that something begins to change. Something in the form of a photographer by the name of Lewis Hine. Now Grace needs to decide what to do with the rest of her life. Spend her days working in the mill or seek something more? The inspiration for this tale, author Elizabeth Winthrop says, came in the form of a picture of a young girl named Addie. The photograph, taken by Lewis Hine, was on display in the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. The photograph is shown at the back of the book, and Winthrop tells the story of the real girl shown there. Her tale is just as interesting as that of Grace's and "The Story Behind the Photograph" worthy reading in and of itself. Add in Winthrop's meticulous Bibliography and you've got yourself some well-researched top-notch writing. Part of the wonder of this book is that Grace's parents are neither heroes nor villains. There's a great deal of respect given to their difficult situa