Bread and Roses, Too
Raver masters an impressive range of character voices—from recent  Italian immigrants to America, to worried or wisecracking children and a  shrill, know-it-all schoolteacher—in this recording of Paterson's novel about  a historic 1912 labor strike in the Lawrence, Mass., textile mills. When her  widowed mother and older sister join the strikers at the mill, young Rosa is  sent temporarily from her family's tenement apartment to a foster family in  Vermont for safekeeping. On the journey she discovers that an orphan boy from  her town has stowed away on the train and wants to pose as her brother in  Vermont. As the children adapt to—and later confess—their fib, listeners  glean a wealth of historical background about the strengths and struggles in  communities of Italian and other European immigrants in New England at that  time. Paterson's story comes full-circle nicely, but lacks the strong character  development and a certain drama that would make it a more compelling listen.  Ages 10-up.(Nov. 2006)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.