A Coal Miner's Bride: the Diary of Anetka Kaminska (Dear America)
Plucky Anetka is determined to thrive in her new life in an arranged  marriage to a Pennsylvania coal miner. In spite of the fact that her husband  doesn't love her, his three daughters still mourn their dead mother, and she has  left behind everything she knows and loves in Poland, this 13-year-old redhead  rolls up her sleeves and gets down to the backbreaking business of keeping  house.Working conditions in the mines are horrendous and the labor movement is  rumbling; nearly every day, wives watch in frightened yet resigned anticipation  as the Black Maria, the "death wagon," rattles down the street to the newest  widow's door. When the Black Maria shows up at Anetka's shanty just a few months  after her wedding, she must dig deeper into her reserves of strength to carry  on. Luckily, a young man named Leon has been patiently waiting in the wings.  Their relationship is sweetly immature--until the very end, she persists in  trying to convince herself she can't stand him because he teases her.The fact that there are no real surprises in Susan Campbell Bartoletti's  historical novel will not detract from readers' enjoyment of the story. The  emphasis is on the historically accurate descriptions of coal mines in Lattimer,  Pennsylvania, during the late 1890s. An informative author's note, photographs,  notes to a coal-mining song, and even a tantalizing recipe for potato dumplings  round out this fascinating portrait of a grim time in history. As with the other  titles in the immensely popular Dear America series,A Coal Miner's Brideis written in the form of a diary. (Ages 9 and older)--Emilie Coulter