num_pages: 240
description: 1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.
language: English
title: Counting on Grace
titlecomplete: Counting on Grace
genres: Historical, Childrens, Juvenile, Young Adult, Middle Grade, School, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Labor, Realistic Fiction
ratings_count: 1376
places: Pownal, Vermont
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Massachusetts Book Award
category: Children's/Young Adult Literature, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Vermont Golden Dome Book Award
publisher: Wendy Lamb Books