Factory Girl

by Barbara Greenwood

At the dingy, overcrowded Acme Garment Factory, Emily Watson stands for eleven hours a day clipping threads from blouses. Every time the boss passes, he shouts at her to snip faster. But if Emily snips too fast, she could ruin the garment and be docked pay. If she works too slowly, she will be fired. She desperately needs this job. Without the four dollars a week it brings, her family will starve. When a reporter arrives, determined to expose the terrible conditions in the factory, Emily finds herself caught between the desperate immigrant girls with whom she works and the hope of change. Then tragedy strikes, and Emily must decide where her loyalties lie.

Emily's fictional experiences are interwoven with non-fiction sections describing family life in a slum, the fight to improve social conditions, the plight of working children then and now, and much more. Rarely seen archival photos accompany this story of the past as only Barbara Greenwood can tell it.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Childrens, Canada, School

136 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Inspired by her own early fascination with historical tales, author Barbara Greenwood specializes in writing historical fiction and biographies for children and young people. When she was young she couldn't find novels about Canada's past. Now she immerses herself in the subject: reading old diaries, journals, and letters, visiting museums, doing in-depth research at libraries, visiting the areas where her books are set. The information gleaned from her research becomes grist for the background details and settings of novels which emphasize character development and the human side of history. The stories she creates are those she would have liked to read at age ten or twelve or fourteen. The reams of research "left-over" from her first two books was used in A Pioneer Story, an award-winning book which mixes fact, fiction, and hands-on activities as it delves into Ontario's past. Barbara Greenwood studied at the University of Toronto. She taught elementary school for many years and, later, taught creative writing to high-school and adult students. She has been president of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers) and has edited many CANSCAIP publications. Many of her short stories and articles have been published in the Canadian Children's Annual and educational anthologies.

Reviews

[Quinn Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been working together with teachers in my school district to find new resources about the Progressive Era, and ways to teach that better to our students. It’s a topic that’s usually undertaught in our schools for various reasons, and some of the resources we’ve found can help bring that past to light for kids.

One of the books we used this month was Factory Girl, by Barbara Greenwood. She’s written several other history books for young readers, including The Last Safe House: A Story of the Underground Railroad and Gold Rush Fever: A Story of the Klondike, 1898. Her method is to interweave a fictional story about a young person with interstitials and sidebars about historic events from the same time period. It can be jarring for some readers, but it presents a broader view of history than the historic fiction would on its own.

Factory Girl is the story of Emily Watson, living in New York City in the early 1900s. She works in a garment factory, and her job seems simple—just clipping threads from blouses. But that job is eleven hours a day, where she’s standing in a hot, airless room, with hundreds of other women. She’s only twelve years old, and earns less than five dollars a week. She’s working to help support her family, and has an overseer that threatens her with dismissal with every huff. She’s caught in this horrible moment of history, where she wants to help her family, wants to be loyal, but is essentially being tortured to do it.

Interspersed with Emily’s story are non-fiction passages that make reference to the chapter of her story just finished—these include information about child labor in general, the garment factories and the various jobs that girls would have within them, the tenement neighborhoods, immigration, and social reformers. The jumps from fiction to non-fiction can be abrupt, and the first few times it happened, I didn’t like it. I wanted to continue Emily’s story, and not be interrupted by the non-fiction. I felt like it was ill-timed commercial breaks: “And now, a word from Jacob Riis!” Eventually, I got used to it.

Ultimately, this is a good fiction/non-fiction mashup that provides poignant insight into the terrifying world of a century ago. You can’t read about the plight of the poor and the immigrants and the sweatshops without making connections with today. Sure, we got rid of Child Labor in the United States (officially, at least), but when I look at my clothing tags and see that they were made in Bangladesh, or Vietnam, or the Dominican Republic…who made them? Like the best books, it had me thinking about my own life, and both how lucky I have it, and the responsibilities I have to others. If you’re interested in history or the ideas that changed the world, Factory Girl is a good read.

[Cristine Braddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave my kids a good picture of the horrific working conditions of factories.

[Judi Paradis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book that combines a historical fiction story with alternating chapters telling about the real issues involving factory work 100 years ago. Emily must go to work in a sewing factory when her father is killed. She is horrified by the conditions, and must decide if she should risk her job to work to make things better. Alternating chapters tell what was really going on at this time in history. Really well done and a great book for history buffs in 3rd grade and up.

[aarifa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book! It went very well with what I was learning in history! It was fun too because it makes you think you're experiencing it yourself with the main character, Emily.

[Christine Stobbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at child labor in factories in the early 20th century. This book follows the same format as another I have read by this author: fiction interrupted at the end of each chapter by factual information that enriches the story. This format breaks up the narrative. Still, it's easy enough to read the fictional chapters first and go back to the factual information after finishing the tale if you wish. I found some punctuation errors in the book annoying, and they made some of the sentences challenging to read. The ending is vaguer than I prefer. The heroine's concluding decision isn't an overnight solution to the problems she has encountered in the factory. Her family's future is still uncertain. This is not a "happily ever after" sort of tale, but it's historically accurate. I do like the storytelling; the vocabulary paints a vivid mental image of the scenes and the action. The photographs are excellent. My son glimpsed a time much harder than his own through the eyes of a protagonist his age. I'm hoping it will give him a greater appreciation of the world he lives in now!

[Makayla Robles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story that tries to explain the real-life events of North American working children in the early 1900’s. Greenwood creatively wrote a fictional story of eleven-year-old Emily, while adding factual information about the slums and working children. I loved how Greenwood tied Emily in to the nonfictional sections and related her fictional life to what real children went through during the early 1900’s. By doing this, readers were able to have a deeper connection with Emily, while also making the nonfiction sections not so bland. The accuracy and detail within this story amazed me. I loved how Greenwood incorporated photographs taken to give a deeper description of the slums. Factory Girl is a one of a kind story that not only teaches readers what happened in the past, but what is also happening in third world countries to this day.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is filled with photos of children who worked any where they could earn a few pennies in the early 1900s. The reason was their families were starving and doing anything they could to survive. The young boys usually stayed in school longer but then went on to dig through trash heaps, search for lumps of coal, sell newspapers or do delivery work The girls most often wound up working in factories sewing or clipping threads in horrible conditions. The photos clearly show the exhaustion and despair of the lives they were living.
At the end of the book, the reader is reminded that, although the US seems to have gotten past the child labor, there are many countries that still rely on children because of the cheap amount they have to pay.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily's father hasn't sent money in months, so she must leave school to help support the family. The only job she can find is at the Acme Garment Factory with other teenage girls. Greenwood does a good job shifting between Emily's story and non-fiction on the history and reality of poverty and child labor. Lots of great photographs too.

[Elisa Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Greenwood utilizes history, biography, & historical photographs while telling the story of exploitation of child laborers in 1912 garment industry’s horrific working conditions. She even provides a glossary of labor terms. While the book is aimed to educate young adults, adults can also benefit from it and teach the children in their lives.

[Jennifer Wilkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent way to introduce kids to this sad reality of American history. Well presented, photos are helpful.

[Ms T]

Well-written reminder of how our ancestors labored to make life better for us...

[VickiLee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real life plight of impoverished and immigrant children in working in North America in the early 1900s. Heart-breaking.

[Racheal Roos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it very much.

[Roger Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is both fiction and nonfiction. I suppose that if it was on television it would be called a docudrama. It is the story of Emily, a twelve-year-old factory worker in 1912, and is written pretty much like any other work of fiction would be written. However, this work of fiction alternates with sections of nonfiction elaborating on the historical setting in which the fiction takes place. I really wanted to give this book four stars and there were a few times while reading it that I thought I was going to do so, but ultimately there were just too many shortcomings. It is really excellent in depicting the horrid working and living conditions of the factory workers and child laborers in North America in 1912, but then the story ends and nothing has changed. It just leaves it at that. The workers start out living very hard lives and they end up living very hard lives and they don't even do much to change their lot. In fact, the workers are largely depicted as cowards who do not dare to fight back against their oppressors. There is a vague reference to a strike that takes place ofstage at one point in the story and toward the end there is some mention of some union organizing, but that is played down. The nonfiction sections do give a nod to strikes and union organizing and in the last section it does make mention of a certain female labor organizer, but it emphasizes the role that newspaper articles and lobbying played in labor reform. It kind of leaves one with the impression that any reform that came about was done by the capitalist system itself and by capitalist reformers. The historical record is that there were tremendous labor battles in which strikes were carried out and literal battles took place in the fight of workers to better their conditions. This book leaves the impression that such things never happened. I think this book would have been much better if it had been only the first chapters of a much larger book. It does a good job of establishing the setting, but after that setting is established I think that it should have gone on to be a story of workers fighting back. It would have made a much more interesting story that way at the very least.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this story and all the background information that was provided. My complaints are all editorial related. First, the title and the front photograph both involve girls and no boys. Everyone, who is involved with children's literature, knows that those two things will immediately turn off most young boys. Actually the book contains a lot of information about "Factory Boys" and could easily have been given a different title and cover! Secondly, this book is an odd combination of fictional story and historical data. While some books handle that diversion quite well, this one does not as what is fiction and what is fact are not separated in an obvious way. One of this book's great features is the glorious period photographs which illustrate it. Greenwood even discusses specific photographers and how their photos brought the public's attention to the often horrific working conditions under which young children worked. Given Greenwood's introduction to the photographers, why did she not label the photographs and give credit to the photographers? I know that this might not have been necessary from a copyright standpoint, but it would have had a great educational value. And lastly, where is her bibliography and suggested further reading list? The deficiencies greatly minimize the value of this book and may prohibit it from being used in educational situations. What a shame as this book brings an interesting era to life for children.

[529_Amalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Factory Girl by Barbara Greenwood is a story of child labor during the twentieth century. Greenwood goes between a fictionalized story and detailed information of this historical event in our history. Emily, 12 years old and 2 years under the legal work age, is forced to leave the 8th grade and find employment after her father leaves home to find work elsewhere. That employment is in a sweatshop making a mere 4 dollars a week to help support her family. The work environment is horrific. After each chapter of the story, Greenwood than describes the history behind child labor here in the United States like the how the social reformers, Jane Addams, fought for change. Greenwood also includes compelling archival photographs that illustrate this time in our nation's history.
Booklist recommends ages 9-12. This is a good book to accompany any unit on the twentieth century, since I do not remember child labor a topic in school as a focus. The archival pictures do a great job accompanying this text and help in telling the story. They give a sense of realness to this historical event and give the student a good opportunity to make a connection to and actual historical event in our nation's history.

[Kyra Calnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A combination between historical fiction short story and descriptive nonfiction brings to life the cruel reality of urban poverty in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Presenting an eye to this world of factory workers and garbage pickers is 12 year old Emily Watson whose father moves West for work and leaves her family to fend for themselves. Once she gets a job at the lowest position in an overcrowded, overworked and underpaid factory, the nonfiction side begins to present the factual reality. Discussing all different jobs such as factory workers, housemaids, “newsies” and shoe shiners, Greenwood directly shows the reality of these impoverished immigrants and families with Emily’s sad existence. The combination of narrative and nonfiction gives us the cold hard facts, but brings them to our emotions and allows us to relate to them through the narrative. We are walked through causes of this poverty such as immigrants being tricked, to the jobs available, and then further to the activists for better working conditions and the action taken! A beautifully accurate insight into a sad mark on our history as a country is a great addition to any classroom or bookshelf!

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this aloud to the kids for school. This is my favorite read-aloud so far this year. It was very interesting. The book shows what life was like for children who worked in American factories (sweatshops) in the early 1900s.

The author blended fiction and non-fiction together to bring the story to life. The fiction part of the story follows a young girl named Emily who must find work because her family has fallen on hard times. Her determination and courage are inspiring. There are non-fiction sections and actual photos of child workers from that time period scattered throughout the book.

Even though the book doesn't mention it, this story caused me to reflect on the fact that even though there are child labor laws here in America, our taste for inexpensive products made at the cost of others who are treated unfairly really hasn't changed much. It's just the location of the laborers that has changed.

[Worthreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great fictionalized account of working life in a garment factory in turn of the century Canada. the protagonist, Emily Watson, must take a job in the factory when the money that her father sends each month from his job in Alberta suddenly stops arriving. Emily is despondent, as she must quit school to take this job and her dreams of becoming a teacher appear to have been cut short. Interspersed with this fiction story is historical information about what life was really like for the working poor in Canada's history. This book would be great for showing children today how other children their age struggled, and how daily life only 100 years ago was radically different from life today.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think I'd like the format of this book--non-fiction essays between chapters of fiction--but it worked well, enhancing the flow of the story rather than interrupting it. The author vividly portrays life in the slums and in the factories for the poor children who had to live and work there. The cover photo especially drew me, as the faces of the girls seem to sum it all up. Some are smiling, some are clearly sad and tired, and one, the girl in the middle, is determined and spunky, obviously the model for the main character, Emily, in the book. Highly recommended!

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter wanted to read this, and I read along with her. I did not realize how suddenly sad it was going to become, nor how vividly the author would explain the living conditions of factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. We did have to stop, and spend time discussing aspects of this story. At times it was a bit much for a 10 yr old to take in. As an adult reader, I found the story of two young girls from vastly different circumstances a rewarding read. There is no profanity nor immoral aspects, but circumstances are pretty horrid!

[22016Patrice L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Factory Girls is a story of twelve year old girl name Emily Watson who worked in a factory with very poor conditions and a news reporter wanted to do a story on the factory to bring awareness to the horrible work conditions. Emily feared that the factory would get shut down and it was the only means to support her family.
Thos was a great read and I would recommend it to students from 3rd grade and up. The book had many real life pictures of the girls who worked on the factory and how many of the families lived in the north in the early 1900.

[Robin Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a mixed genre book, with a narrative set alongside expository writing about child labor at the turn of the century in the United States. This book examines the plight of immigrants, some of whom cannot speak English. Social Studies students can identify with these immigrants and their inability to communicate their pain. It is also good to use during a study of the Industrial Revolution, to show the negative side of technological advancement.

[Sheila Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is loaded with pictures of kids working in factories...Powerful! The story of young Emily who must drop out of school and go to work to help her family survive tough times will tug at your heart! It tells about the pioneers of photography who bravely entered the forbidden work world of children! What an emotional book! It is a mix of fact and fiction that draws you into the story and will not let you go!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wasn't sure how Greenwood would go from the fiction to the non-fiction but I was pleasantly surprised. Indeed, I found the non-fiction actually enhanced the story and that with the pictures, it made the story even more real and even more heartbreaking. I was a bit disappointed with the end but I think it was done on purpose. The sad truth was that Emily probably stayed in factories her whole life and this is probably something children don't really want to read about.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've tagged this both as historical fiction and nonfiction, because it's an interesting hybrid. The book alternates between the fictional story of Emily, a poor young immigrant from Ireland forced to work in a clothing factory to help keep her family alive, and the true story of working children in North American cities in the early 1900s. The many photos from that time are priceless.

[Denise Ashlock-Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

2007 Voya Nonfiction Honor List. I didn't know what to expect when I first selected this book. I love readin about history, but this book blended a story about a girl with historical facts. It was a great book to read. I don't know if I could use it in an English classroom, but it definitely could be used for a history component. Great book, would recommend to anyone.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book because of the cover & also by the fact that if my Mom had grown up in a city instead of on a farm, she would've been one of these girls.
The story is told through the eyes of Emily & I think the author did a wonderful job of maintaining historical accuracy. The book is well written.

[Reader Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. The fictional parts were good, but the intermingled factual parts detracted from them. Typically, books of this nature put the factual part at the back so you have two sets of interesting reading. Intermingled this way, I felt like I was reading a jazzed up text book. Every time I got into Emily's story, I was dragged away.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was already pretty knowledgeable about this subject after reading Lyddie by Katherine Paterson and Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I did learn a couple new facts. I learned more about the slums and what was done to try to clean them up. It was a fairly quick read and I think anyone can get something out of this book.