Brave Girl, Michelle Markel
Brave Girl, Michelle Markel
List: $9.99 | Sale: $7.00
Club: $4.99

Brave Girl
Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909

Author: Michelle Markel

Narrator: Lesa Lockford

Unabridged: 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/05/2014

Synopsis

When Clara arrived in America, she couldn't speak English. She didn't know that young women had to go to work, that they traded an education for long hours of labor, that she was expected to grow up fast. But that didn't stop Clara. She went to night school, spent hours studying English, and helped support her family by sewing in a shirtwaist factory. Clara never quit, and she never accepted that girls should be treated poorly and paid little. Fed up with the mistreatment of her fellow laborers, Clara led the largest walkout of women workers the country had seen. From her short time in America, Clara learned that everyone deserved a fair chance. That you had to stand together and fight for what you wanted. And, most importantly, that you could do anything you put your mind to.

About Michelle Markel

Was it because she was born in the dream factory of Los Angeles, site of giant donuts and fairy tale cottages? Was it because of the outrageous stories her father told at bedtime? Maybe it was the books themselves, the fauve colors of Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline and later the droll prose of William Steig that inspired Michelle to write for children. She has imagined, and published, picture books of all stripes, from alphabet to fiction to biography.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on March 16, 2016

An inspirational picturebook about girls and social justice, the 2014 winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award for Younger Children about something that we all need to recall in these anti-union times: The Garment Worker's strike of 1909 in NYC, led by mostly young women and girls, some as yo......more

Goodreads review by Margo on February 23, 2013

Get a jump on Women's History Month with this new picture book about Clara Lemlich, a remarkable 20th century labor leader. Picture books about early 20th century Jewish women labor leaders are not exactly published every day in the picture book universe, so I was especially eager to read this new w......more

Goodreads review by Paul on January 24, 2013

The story of Clara Lemlich and the Shirtwaist Maker's Strike of 1909. We are, of course, not going to miss the instantaneous "ladders" to FLESH AND BLOOD SO CHEAP, right, friends? This is a nicely written book by Michelle Markel with plenty of sentence variety to serve well as a mentor text for the y......more

Goodreads review by Audrey's Picture Books on April 15, 2016

The book is slightly overwrought at times, but engaging and solidly written. My biggest issue with it is the last sentence of its back matter: "Though there are still wrongs to be righted, today's workers have five-day workweeks, overtime pay, and other protections due in great part to labor leaders......more

Goodreads review by Agnė on August 15, 2017

3.5 out of 5 Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 is a well-researched (it has a full-page bibliography at the end of the book) and engagingly written picturebook. But although the subject of the book and its heroine are inspiring, Michelle Markel's story seems a little bit sim......more

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