The Little Match Girl Strikes Back by Emma Carroll illustrated by Lauren Child

 

Bridie Sweeney wants to tell you a better story, a more truthful story, a less tragic story about the real little match girl. The year is 1887 (the year my own Grandmother Amy Elizabeth was born).

The old story was "so sweet and sad, people would snivel into their hankies upon reading it, and it soon because famous the world over. It made the man who wrote it very rich indeed, though I don't suppose he'd ever met a real match girl in his life. If he had he'd have know we weren't all pretty things with fair curls and tiny, freezing hands, and that most of us were fed up with being hungry all the time."

Bridie lives with her mother, who works at the match factory, and her younger brother Fergal. They live in a tiny room and just scrape by with small wages from the factory and the few coins Bridie makes selling matches in London's East End. 

Conditions in the factory are dreadful. Mam, and the other women who work there, are subject to the poison of the phosphorus from the matches (phossy jaw). There is no ventilation in their work space and they cannot wash their hands before eating. 

"I couldn't imagine how bad it was inside the factory building. Mam was a dipper, dunking the matchsticks in phosphorus, which meant she - and many others like her - stood bent over the stuff all day long without so much as an open window for air."

The factory is based on the real one The Bryant and May factory. Here are their match boxes:

Image source: National Archives UK

Bridie sets out to sell her matches and on this day things go well at first. She sells all of her boxes and is able to pick up another set from the factory. But this is when things go badly wrong. She is nearly killed when a carriage containing the factory boss hits her. All of her matches are spilled, her tray is smashed and the too big slippers, which belong to her mam, are lost. Bridie has only three damaged matches left. She strikes each of them in turn, and, as in the original tale, she enters a series of visions. She experiences the excesses of the rich factory boss and his family at their dining table. Then she meets a activist who wants to support the factory workers and demand change. Finally she is given a glimpse of her final wish - "I wish to see my family living a better life".

This is historical fiction at its best. At the back of the book there are notes which explain the context of factory workers, match production, the role of the activist Annie Besant (1847-1933) who published letters in newspapers all over England which led people to support the striking factory workers. It all takes a long time but by 1908 the use of white phosphorus is banned. 

The production of this book is scrumptious!  Yes I am using the word scrumptious.  This hardcover book costs under AUS$20 and it has a dust jacket (you know I adore them) and a different image under the jacket (another aspect of book design that I really appreciate). The illustrations by Lauren Child are perfect too. If you have a young reading companion aged 10+ I highly recommend this book. It would be a perfect Christmas present.

It’s a thrilling tale and Bridie is a wonderful character brought stunningly to life in Lauren Child’s magnificently beautiful illustrations, many of them based on real photographs of match sellers and workers from the time. The innovative layout of the text makes this a particularly vibrant read. Emma Carroll and Lauren Child are a brilliant pairing and this book would make a wonderful gift. Book Trust

Further reading

Kids Britannica "Match girls' strike"

English Heritage 

Historic UK

Spartacus Educational

I would follow this book with these:

Counting on Grace

Bread and Roses Too

Of course you will also want to revisit the original story. Some very talented people have illustrated versions of this famous Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale - Jerry Pinkney; Rachel Isadora; Kveta Pacovska; Kestutis Kasparavicius and Hye-Won Yang.

I have previously talked about several books by Emma Carroll:

Letters from the Lighthouse

Sky Chasers

The Week at World's End

In Darkling Wood

The Ghost Garden

My Friend the Octopus by Lindsay Galvin illustrated by Gordy Wright

"I peered into the top of the hollow pearl. A glint so bright it was as if sunbeams had been captured and sealed inside."

Vinnie (Lavinia) Fyfe works with her mother in a London milliners shop. The year is 1893.  Vinnie is skilled with drawing and her mother uses/exploits this skill to design new hats which she sells to very wealthy customers. Vinnie is not unhappy but Rosamund Fyfe has very strict ideas about behaviour and class. Vinnie has no idea about the level of control her mother has always exerted over her until, just before dawn one day her mother whisks Vinnie away to Brighton leaving her with a distant cousin Aunt Bets. Aunt Bets runs a tea room above the Brighton aquarium. Vinnie is told Rosamund needs to go to Paris and so for the first time in her life Vinnie is left alone. 

"Being Mother’s constant companion meant that I was never really alone, and the thought of finding my own way to the aquarium filled me with new dismay, mainly at myself. I now realised I’d got to twelve years old utterly ill-equipped to deal with this adventure."

On the day of her arrival at the aquarium a new exhibit has arrived - a huge octopus. Vinnie is fascinated by this amazing creature. It takes some bravery but she discovers she has a talent for drawing more than hats. Her sketches of the octopus even appear in a local newspaper. 

This is a story set during Victorian times so of course there is a villan - Mr Jedders - a former employee of their Grosvenor Square shop. He is pursuing Rosamund but Vinnie has no idea why but his manner and violence are very frightening. Luckily Vinnie makes two new, clever, resourceful and wise friends - a young boy called Charlie who is the nephew of Mr Lee head of the aquarium and a young very well educated African girl called Temitayo. The group make a horrible discovery about the green colour used for fabric and ribbons used on the hats her mother makes.  Readers are given a glimpse into the terrible highly dangerous working conditions of children who labour to make this sort-after shade. 

I read this book in one sitting (256 pages). The plot just races along with perfect twists and a heroine who must succeed. The octopus itself is also an interesting character because every animal lover will desperately hope this wild creature can be released back into the ocean. Confinement in a small tank seems so cruel. 

Lindsay weaves mysteries together with ease while immersing us in some of the darker sides of Victorian society, one of which there are sadly all too real comparisons to make with modern day fast fashion – something which is bound to be a talking point beyond the book. Miss Cleveland is Reading

Here is an interview with the author which gives some very interesting insights into the research behind this book. I hope you love the book cover as much as I do. Well done Chicken House - this cover is perfect. Read this review by Lily and the Fae which has an in depth analysis of the plot and links to slavery, class and fashion. 

I loved the tea shop in this book and the scene where they eat Battenberg cake and at the back of the book there is a recipe for petit fours - yum. There are also a couple of terrific scenes in this book about bicycle riding in skirts and bloomers and sea bathing huts on wheels. And the back has extensive notes explaining the historical background used for this story. 

My Friend the Octopus is children’s historical fiction at its best. Lindsay Galvin brilliantly evokes the Victorian era, encompassing fashion, leisure activities, attitudes to women, and the disparity between rich and poor. Victorian Brighton comes alive with its bathing huts, the aquarium, and Italian ice cream served in shells. Get Kids into Books

I am keen to read another book by Lindsay Galvin:

Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah

Ajay is an orphan who lives at a large railway station. People discard newspapers and Ajay has used these, firstly to learn how to read, but more importantly to set himself his life goal of becoming a newspaper reporter. His good friend Vinod works in a local restaurant. He tells Ajay the editor of the major newspaper will be dining in the restaurant. Ajay rushes away to write an impressive report in the hope he will get the job of his dreams but Mr Gupta, editor of The City Paper, explains people are no longer interested in printed papers - they are too distracted by their phones.

Ajay is not defeated. He decides to make is own newspaper - The Mumbai Sun. He has lucky timing because the newspaper office has tossed out an old printing machine and another good friend, Saif, is training to be a railway engineer. He can easily fix any machine. So now Ajay has equipment and determination. Another friend, Jasmine, has fabulous art skills and, he is able to scavenge old discarded pink paper from a packaging factory.

Now what will Ajay write about? The town mayor declares the slum buildings where many people live will be demolished and the people relocated to a much safer and better place - but is this really true. Young Jasmine works in a factory printing Tshirts but are the working conditions safe and is it right that very young children work in these poor conditions? Then there is a terrible accident and the factory manager is killed. Who is behind this factory fire? Ajay unravels layers and layers of corruption, lies and bribes. He can and does report on all of this but some of his words have consequences he could never have anticipated. 

Sport fans are sure to enjoy the final scenes in this book - a cricket match between the street kids and the students from a wealthy private school. 

I borrowed this book from the library at Westmead Children's Hospital. Chicken House always published terrific stories and this one absolutely did not disappoint. I almost read it in one sitting. Read an extract on the Chicken House site. I hope the cover appeals to you - I love it. There are also some poignant contemporary references in this book such as the Grenfell Tower fire in London of 2017.

Fast-paced and wonderfully descriptive, full of the noise and bustle, colour and life of an Indian city, this is an inspiring, uplifting and entertaining story of hope and possibilities. More about Books

The tone is one of hope and change; it acknowledges, but by no means lingers over, the children’s hardships. Just Imagine

This is a book to make you smile, laugh out loud, recoil in horror and then stand up, cheer and thump the air. Book Trust

If you are looking for a great read aloud book for a Grade 4, 5 or 6 class this book could be a good choice. 

"It was the rage of the people who have been bullied by the rich and the powerful their whole lives, of people seen as expendable statistics rather than human, of people who have suffered the consequences of arrogance and ruthlessness of those in power."

One review suggested this book is similar to Emil and the Detectives. 

another book about the power of the media to unearth corruption is Adam Canfield of the Slash.

In you want to read a book also set in a busy city in India try to find this one:

The Book Uncle and Me 

Older Readers (14+) should also look for this one:

A Cardboard Palace

I like, I don't like by Anna Baccelliere illustrated by Ale Ale

Every child in the world has the right:

• to have a family
• to play
• to receive an education
• to be taken care of
• to be comforted
• to not be mistreated in any way
• to be loved
• to have a name and a nationality
• to express their opinions
• to meet others and make friends
• to have a life of dignity 

AND YET ...

This book shows a child enjoying every day life contrasted with the life of a child worker.

One child likes shoes (big ones her mum wears are fun to play with) while the other is working as a shoe shiner. One child likes his Lego bricks while the other carries actual heavy bricks from the kiln on his head. One child lies on her favourite rug while the other child works at a loom - her back is not even supported as she sits all day on a hard bench. Another young child enjoys talking to her friends on her own mobile phone while a young boy scavenges at the rubbish dump sifting through broken phones looking for materials to sell. 

The illustrations are stylised photographs that are painted and textured. They look straight into the faces of children from both sides of wealth and poverty, 

contrasting broad smiles with a deep weariness.

This is one of the most profound books I have discovered this year. It needs to be in every school library and I am planning to add a copy to my own bulging shelves. I would have loved to share this book with my senior primary students as a part of our unit of work on the Rights of the Child. 

This book is also a perfect title to share the UN Sustainable Devlopment Goal 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth. 

I like, I don't like was originally written in Italian with the title Amo non amo . Ale + Ale are the Italian artists Alessandro Lecis and Alessandra Panzeri.  Anna Baccelliere also lives in Italy. 

The "school-librarian part of my brain gets excited when I see books like this. That is, I think about teachers who may need particular books at different moments in their curriculum throughout the year. Those teachers wanting to talk to students about child labor—and, really, I’d use this book with middle schoolers or high schoolers too—would be wise to pick up a copy of this." Seven Impossible things Before Breakfast

A hard, heartfelt read. Kirkus

The book never loses sight of its purpose, pairing wealthy children with those living in poverty and doing child labor is a way to make sure that the message resonates with children and that they learn about their privilege in the world. Waking Brain Cells

This book will encourage children to look at the world from someone else’s point of view – perhaps more important now than ever, and to feel gratitude for what they have. Rhapsody in Books

With your senior primary students I would follow the sharing of I like, I don't like with a brief book talk about each of these:

A Cardboard Palace (YA title)

Trash

The Girl of the Southern Sea

The Most Beautiful Place in the World

Lost Riders

Do Something for Someone else

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop

Publisher blurb: 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.

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing by Elizabeth Winthrop:

"Arthur Trottier is my best student. He could be a teacher or a manager or even a lawyer someday. As long as you leave him be. Because we both know the only way he will ever come back to this school is when your machine spits him out."

"The mill owners own everything in town - the store, the school and our houses."

"The river doesn't seem to mind. Borrow my water it says. Long as you give it back. Trouble is when the mill spits the water back out, it comes out all dirty and it smells queer."

"Every girl in the mill has to have her hair bound up so it don't get caught in the machines."

"But now I'm here to work, not play. The air in the mill is stuffy and linty and sweaty at the same time 'cause all day long water sprays down on the frames from little hoses in the ceiling... you don't breathe too deep for fear of what you might be sucking down your throat."

"You've got to pay attention in the mill or else those big old bad machines, they'll snatch up any loose piece hanging off a person and gobble it up."

"Maybe the screaming is coming from me and maybe it's coming from Arthur, but all I know is he's gone and put his fingers in that place between the sprockets and they're chewing his hand all to bits. ... I'm the only one who knows Arthur was fixing to do whatever he to so's he could get out of the mill."

Read more plot details here. Sadly Counting on Grace is now out of print (first published in 2006) but I was able to read a ebook version. Listen to the story of the photo on the cover of this book. And read more here.  Audio sample. 

Addie never knew that her face ended up in a Reebok advertisement or on a postage stamp issued 100 years after her birth, or that Hine's glass plate negative resides in the Library of Congress. Addie Card LaVigne never knew that she had become a symbol.

Solid research and lively writing make this a fine historical novel Kirkus

Imaginative, plucky, and both smart and smart-mouthed, Grace is a heroine who leaves the reader confident that she will fulfill Miss Lesley’s hopes for her – and ours. Hisorical Novel Society

I have read and really enjoyed other books with a mill and factory worker setting such as Lyddie by Katherine Paterson and later her book Bread and Roses too. Then I watched the television adaption of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Bread and Roses too

A Cardboard Palace by Allayne L Webster

 

Jorge has been trafficked as a very young child. He is now forced to work for a gang of thieves working the streets and popular tourist sites of Paris. His daily life is horrendous. He has to pickpockets and take money from tourists and then deliver his 'takings' to his minder named Bill. If he has not gathered enough money he is punished. He also rarely receives any money for food so he is constantly desperately hungry. Jorge and the other kids live in a makeshift camp on the edge of the city and his home is indeed made from cardboard. There were times when I was reading this book when I just had to stop and take a break. The terrible things that happen to Jorge and his young friends are, at times, very confronting.

Yes this does feel like a modern day Oliver Twist and perhaps it is no coincidence that Bill has the same name as Bill Sykes from the famous Dickens novel. 

Publisher Blurb: Jorge lives in a shanty town on the outskirts of Paris. Bill, a controller, has an army of child thieves at his command—and Jorge is one of them. But soon Jorge faces an even bigger threat. His home is to be bulldozed. Where will Jorge sleep? What will happen to his friends, Ada and Gino? Could a burgeoning friendship with Australian chef, Sticky-Ricky, help Jorge to stop Bill and save the army of child-thieves? And will he do it before he loses Ada forever? Jorge can’t keep fighting to live—now he must live to fight. A harrowing, humbling story about one boy’s desperation to escape a life of crippling poverty.

A Cardboard Palace is a Young Adult novel which in my view is suitable for ages 13+. In NSW this book is on the 7-9 Premiers Reading Challenge list BUT very oddly (and I think dangerously) this book was included on the CBCA 2018 Notable list for Younger Readers. Similarly, having said: the book also covers poverty, human trafficking, slavery, child marriage and death - Books and Publishing list this book for readers aged 10+.  This deeply worries me. Take a look at this review in Reading Time. Here is a set of teaching notes. Here is a detailed review with more plot details.

I picked up a Cardboard Palace from the Westmead Children's Hospital Book Bunker because I have just read another book from Midnightsun and I wanted to read a little more about this South Australian publisher. 

A Cardboard Palace reads like a modern Dickens story set in Paris, giving a voice to trafficked Romany children who are forced to labour illegally for a pittance. Lamont Books

Companion reads:

Trash

The Bridge Home

Girl of the Southern Sea by Michelle Kadarusman

"All you see is a poor girl ... A girl without power of choices. But you are wrong. 

I am here to live a different story. I am here to write my own story."

Nia has lost her mother and her father has begun drinking heavily to ease his grief. Nia, young brother Rudi and her father live in poverty. Each week it is a desperate struggle to find enough money for their rent payment and food. Nia's father has a small food cart from which he makes fried bananas to sell near the busy railway station. 

Nia is a clever girl. She longs to continue her education and move onto High School but this costs money and now that her father has stopped earning money due to an accident she has to leave school and attend to the food cart. 

Nia loves to tell stories and these are woven into this book. Her stories are about Dewi Kadita, Princess of the Southern Sea and are based on Javanese folktales.

Her life takes a strange turn when Nia is involved in a mini bus accident. While others are badly hurt and one boy is killed, Nia walks away uninjured. A witness to this incident - Mr Oskar a local tailor - declares Nia is now a special girl and that buying her fried bananas will bring good luck. Long queues form as people jostle to buy from her stall. Some what unwisely Nia increases her price and money begins to flow in but it is very clear this enterprise is doomed. Meanwhile her father has disappeared and Nia and her brother are struggling. Oskar, who keeps hanging around, also has his own, shocking reasons, for wanting to befriend Nia. 

It is a sharp and politically attuned work that will give readers further appreciation for the value of access to education, health care, and justice. Quill and Quire

A thought-provoking peek into a culture ... Kirkus

Here is an alternate cover. Which do you like best?

I have had such a feast of wonderful reading this week - Talking to Alaska by Anna Wolta (due out in July); Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim; Beyond Belief by Dee White; and Haywire by Claire Saxby and now I add Girl of the Southern Sea to this list.

I do need to give a violence warning for The Girl of the Southern Sea. The publisher lists this book as suitable for ages 9-13. Once again, as I often seem to do lately, I disagree. In my view this is a book for mature readers aged 11+. There is a horrific scene in this book when the crowd discover Nia is not "a lucky charm" as they had been led to believe. The mob hurl stones at her and then she is doused in kerosene. Nia survives but the horror and raw hatred of this scene lingers with me (an adult reader) many days later. 

Michelle Kadarusman lives in Canada but she was born in Melbourne. She is the author of The Theory of Hummingbirds.

Companion reads:

The Paper House

Amal Unbound

Homeless Bird

The Bridge Home Padma Venkatraman

Have you ever thought about the rhythm of reading. In a well written book I find it easy to slip into the rhythm of the writing. The pages almost seem to turn themselves. As I was sitting on a train yesterday reading this book everything around me disappeared. I was totally absorbed into the world of Viji, her sister Ruku and their two friends Muthi and Arul. This book deals with tough issues. Padma takes us into a harsh place where there is violence and desperate poverty and every day is about survival. These children are living life on the edge. I know this sounds odd, after I have mentioned such difficulties, but this book is also a joy to read. I so appreciate that I have meet these children and I feel privileged to now have a small understanding of their lives which sadly reflect the lives of many children in our world. 

You can click the review comments below for more plot details. I just wanted to add some text quotes to show you the power of this writing. These are description of the garbage heaps where the children work.

"Not far away was the largest garbage heap I'd ever seen. Mounds and mounds of junk and waste stretched out like a mountain range. The fragrance of wilted jasmine flowers mingled with the smell of goat droppings and every other bad smell imaginable."

"I squelched along as best I could, making slow progress. I speared a damp rag and shook it into my sack. But when I spotted a bottle, half filled with sour milk, I had to read for it with my bare hands. I wanted to run away screaming."

"After what felt like hours, my legs were coated with yellow and brown slime and my back was slick with sweat. A sense of hopelessness spread in my heart like the stains spreading on my skirt. Stains that would never wash out."

Please take a few minutes to watch Colby Sharp talking about this book. He uses words such as 'heartbreak'; 'rough'; 'makes you think'; 'powerful'; 'a book readers won't forget'; 'I read the first fifty pages and I was captivated'; 'an important book'; 'see a world different from mine through the pages of a book'; 'I'm a better person (because I read this book'.

At the end of this book go back and re-read the first chapter. The circle of the story will feel complete. You can hear an audio sample of the author reading her book here and this includes the first chapter. If you have some time here is a video interview with Padma. She talks about using fiction to build empathy. Here is Padma's web site.

A blisteringly beautiful book. Kirkus Star review

... this bittersweet story is about breaking the cycle of abuse, reaching for your dreams, and finding home in the most unlikely people and places. Horn Book

What is most striking about THE BRIDGE HOME is that, despite its brevity, it is filled with such passion, emotion and detail that it is impossible not to fall in love with the characters and the story. Readers are immediately sucked into the lives of Viji and Rukku. KidsReads

Although this is a middle grade novel, this book is raw and so unbearably real. The circumstances these four young children face each day is heard of through charity commercials. They struggle to find food, shelter, and clothes. The dangers of the environment play a heavy role in this story, making it so realistic that you’re worried about how these children could possibly survive. Towards the end, something does happen that makes you burst into tears. These children that you fall in love with are not in a fantastical world but in the real world we see today and they’re not invincible. Remarkablylisa

I would follow this book with Trash and Ibqal.