Stitched Up by Steve Cole

Hanh is sold by her parents to two strangers who offer her a good job as a shop assistant in distant Hanoi. She and other girls from her village are taken to the city but that's when all the promises are broken. They are locked inside a factory, fed only rice, they are only allowed to use the bathroom twice a day, and all of them are forced to work in very dangerous factory conditions manufacturing jeans for the fast fashion industry. Perfectly good denim is distressed by sandblasting. Fabrics are dropped into vats of dangerous chemicals. Machines are used to press creases into the legs of the pants. And embellishments are added by machine and by hand. The young overseer girl wields a stick and she beats any child who does not perform their tasks quickly. Quotas, money and greed drive this industry. Reading this book will most certainly make you reconsider that next purchase of fast fashion.

The story does have a resolution but clearly Hanh will be damaged for the rest of her life and her parents suffer from the most dreadful guilt. They never did receive the promised money. In this book you can read about modern slavery and organisations who are working to rescue children like Hanh and her friends. There is also an afterword about ways to avoid fast fashion. I had no idea 8,000 litres of water are used to make one pair of jeans 

This book is from the Barrington Stoke (Dyslexia friendly) book series. They produce books for all ages and this one is most certainly a Young Adult title for mature readers aged 12+.

You're going to read about the processes which go into the manufacture of garments such as the jeans. They're complex and require a great deal of skill. Hanh and the other girls get just two poor meals a day and are allowed only two toilet breaks. Violence is commonplace - and vicious. No account is taken of any illnesses or injuries: the girls are, after all, expendable. It's a dreadful situation but Steve Coles tells the story with sensitivity and compassion but still manages not to shy away from the brutal truth about why fast-fashion clothes are so cheap. BookBag

Children who are passionate about social justice are sure to devour this book. Scope for Imagination

In the context of a High School this book could be used in many different ways. If your school runs a social justice program this book explores modern slavery. This book is also about textile manufacturing and in particular 'trendy' jeans with distressed fabrics, rips and tears and embellishments and so it could be used in Design and Tech. If you have a group of students exploring the UN Rights of the child this book could be added to a wide reading list.

Here are all the titles in this series by Steve Cole:

I would pair Stitched up with these books:

Amal Unbound

The Fortune Maker by Catherine Norton

"It meant living in the cheapest room in Silvertown, in a house on Pilchard Street at the very end of a terrace that tilted towards a lake of dark, oozing run-off from the coal tar factory. Their room had one tiny window they had to keep closed against the stench, especially in summer, and tide water seeped up through the floorboards all year round. Silvertown itself was built on a boggy bit of land between the river and the docks, in the shadow of dozens of factories that filled the streets with the foul stinks of sulphur, tar and the boiling bones and guts of slaughtered animals."

Maud Mulligan lives in desperately poor circumstances in a London slum. The year is 1913 - think about the significance of that date - suffragettes; Emaline Pankhurst; World War I is not far off; and the Industrial Revolution means thousands of people have come to London and many work in very dangerous factories. Maud might have a tough life, but she also has a dream to leave the slums and travel with her father to a better place. In their lodgings they have a jar and every day for the last seven years she has been saving so that one day they can buy two tickets on a streamer to somewhere else. Sadly, this cannot happen because the very old building where they live falls into the Thames. The money is gone. Then her father is killed by an elephant that was being winched off a ship down on the docks. He was knocked into the river and drowned. Now Maud has no family, no home, no money and only the clothes she had been wearing the day her home fell into the river.

Maud and her father had been living in an unused pantry in the home of Mrs Wray. Her husband is a violent man and for a while Maude manages to keep out of his way but then she is discovered and so now she is forced to live on the streets. 

This is a time of superstition. Maud is desperate to know the future. 

"Underneath the river, between the factories on the north bank and the gun yards on the south, there was a tunnel. ... for a few pennies you could find out your future."

In a heartbreaking scene we see Maud exchange her mother's beautiful green shawl so she can learn about her future. 

"How will I get out of Silverton?"

"Ruin! You will lose everything."

What does this prophecy mean? Maud is kidnapped by a man connected with a factory that makes dyes. The rich owners have also consulted a fortune teller - a famous and rich one. Somehow the colour yellow is important, as are chemistry lessons. Maud will escape, then be recaptured, then escape again. Along the way she meets rich people, corrupt people, and surprising new friends. She is even caught up in a suffragette protest march - a violent one. And there is another layer over the top of all of this which is hinted at on the cover. Maud herself is able to see the future - this is a gift but it could also put her in grave danger.

Maud is told to predict the colour that will be in fashion next year.

"Maud carefully lifted the crystal ball from the velvet-lined box and carried it to an armchair. ... She gasped when the flames flickered and changed. They became a column of figures, so indistinct as to be almost silhouettes. Even so, she could tell they were not ladies but men, moving slowly forwards and swaying.  ... The dying men were sucked abruptly into the ground."

All she can see is grey and black and mud and sludge. What does this mean?

This book has 312 pages and I read it all on one day - yes this book is THAT good. The final sentence made me gasp! I sincerely hope this book has been entered in our CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) awards and if it has, I am certain it will be a Younger Readers Notable title and almost certainly a short-listed book too. I am surprised I haven't heard more people talking about this book which was released in August, 2023. That said, do take a look at all the positive comments on Catherine Norton's web page. I also really like the cover - in fact that is what drew me to this book when I saw it in a local independent book shop. Catherine Norton's book Crossing was a 2015 CBCA Notable but I somehow missed reading it. 

Publisher blurb: London, 1913 Twelve-year-old Maud Mulligan knows there's no future for her in London, in the rat-infested slum where she grew up. But in the tunnel under the river are fortune tellers, Seers, who will tell your fortune for a few pennies. And then there is Mr Mandalay, Seer to the king and anyone else rich enough to afford him. When Mr Mandalay sees Maud in a foretelling for a wealthy factory heiress, she believes Maud can save her family from financial ruin. But how? And why? In a world shaken by suffragettes, scientists, and the threat of war, what could a girl like Maud do to change anyone's future - or even her own?

This is a mystical adventure about strength, determination and changing times. Full of optimism even in the most desperate of situations, it shows how survival can be achieved through the worst or best experience, depending on the strength within to face whatever you are dealt. A stunning, eye-catching cover equals the fantastic read. Kids' Book Review

This reviewer inhaled this book - I did too. 

Serious themes of grief and loss, gender roles, power and resilience underpin this adventure but never overburden this exhilarating roller coaster read. The writing is assured, rich in historical detail, and enlivened by delightful insights into character. ...  I inhaled this book in one sitting and I think many others will do the same. ... Its high production values indicate the publishers think they have a keeper and I agree with them. Story Links

This story feels like the writing of Charles Dickens. You could share some children's abridged versions of his famous stories with your child after reading The Fortune Maker.

Here are some teachers notes from the publisher. You can read chapters one and two here. 

Companion books:

My Friend the Octopus

The Runaways of Haddington Hall

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow

The Truth about Verity Sparks

Withering by Sea

Counting on Grace

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

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

Ghostcloud by Michael Mann

The evil Tabatha Margate rules the Battersea power station using a mixture of fear, severe punishments and frightening threats. Hundreds of children are suffering in this horrible underground environment where they work long hours shovelling coal into huge burners. It is incredibly dangerous work.  This is a debut novel from Michael Mann and he is sure to make you feel every cruel moment.

"There was a squeal of pain down the line, then the sizzle of hot ash on naked skin. A solitary sob echoed through the hall."

"The front line kids have to throw coal in the fire with their bare hands. The flames jump out and burn off their fingernails.  One kid lost an eye the other day."

The London of this dystopian world is covered in a dangerous smog. Children are regularly kidnapped to work for Tabatha. Areas of the city are now either uninhabitable or filled with make-shift shelters and people living in poverty. The tunnel between England and France is blocked. Meanwhile rich people ride around in vehicles with smog-sealed doors. 

Naturally Luke and his mate Ravi are desperate to get out of this place. There is a system where the children can earn a golden ticket and so that is their goal until the night Luke meets a ghostcloud named Alma. Backing up a little, Luke is working at his shovelling when Tabatha arrives. There is a new girl on the line called Jess. It is clear she has no idea how to shovel and so everyone on this line will be punished and worse still it will take longer to earn that golden ticket. Luke leaps the line to rescue Jess but everything goes terribly wrong and so Luke and Jess are sent to clean the sewer in the East Wing as a punishment. After several fairly fruitless hours of cleaning this utterly filthy place, using strips of their own clothing, Luke suggests Jess take a nap. At this point he discovers a girl trapped behind the glass wall of the incinerator. He is able to rescue her and then he discovers she is a ghostcloud and better yet Luke himself has ghostly abilities too. 

Now the race is on to reach freedom but of course this is not simple. Freedom will also come with a cost because Tabatha certainly won't let these children go free. She will hunt them down. So who is this woman called Tabatha? Why is she using the children in this way? what is she hiding in her laboratory? Where does this smog come from? And can Luke stay safe when the skies are filled with ghouls?

I suggest readers in Australia may need a map of London to make sense of all the places mentioned in this story but don't let that stop you grabbing hold of this book - I think all the damaged and altered landmarks in London just add to the dystopian flavour. I recommend this book for readers aged 10+.

Ghostcloud has odd pricing. The hardcover was released on 7th October and is priced over $30 here in Australia. Some sellers list the paperback (due at the end of October) for under $20 while others have it listed over $25. Whatever the price I would add this book to your own or library shopping list. 

I would pair this book with The Wonderling by Mira Bartok.  This is a book that many of you may have missed reading but can I suggest you hunt it out (soon) because it is splendid. 

And you are also sure to enjoy The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum. 

Tabatha and her evil ways and her obsessive drive for power reminded me of these book characters

Matilda by Roald Dahl - Miss Trunchbull

The Girl who could fly by Victoria Forester - Dr Hellion

The Unadoptables by Hanna Tooke  - Matron Gassbeek

Beetle Boy by MG Leonard - Lucretia Cutter

The Lost Children by Carolyn Cohagan - The Master

Eloise and the Bucket of Stars by Janeen Brian - Sister Hortense

Sir Tony Robinson's Worst Children's jobs in History illustrated by Mike Phillips

If you follow this blog you will know I rarely talk about non fiction.  Taking this one step further if I AM talking about a non fiction title it must be really GOOD - and yes it is.

If you have students or children who enjoy the Horrible History series rush out and grab a copy of this book which won the Blue Peter Best Book with Facts award in 2007.

There are six chapters in this book each with an intriguing heading :

• First get yourself some training
• The great outdoors
• No hiding place
• Mean streets
• Service without a smile
• Slave to the machine

You can get a feel for the colloquial style found in this book from the very first page.

"Stop reading this book right now! Put it down, walk slowly to the kitchen and open the door of the cupboard under the kitchen sink.  Off you go!  Don't touch anything just look. Are you back yet? Did you see lots of plastic bottles ... they make jobs like cleaning ... quick and easy."

Of course if you'd been alive in the Middle Ages you would not have had access to any of these products and every job would be ten times harder than it is now.

What jobs are we talking about?  Here is a list of some that you may never have heard of and there are lots more too.

• mudlark
• costermonger
• link boy
• fuller's apprentice
• jigger-turner

Here is the picture for a fuller's apprentice.  "You had to take off your shoes and socks and climb into a barrel full of other people's wee."  This was the way they processed woven wool.

Each job has an easy to read description and a little job score scroll.  Here are the details for a stepper - a young orphan girl sent from a charity home to scrub doorsteps for a penny each.

Job Score
Stepper
Boredom
steps all look the same
Hard Slog
work till your hands and knees are red
Cash
very little
Glamour
nobody notices you

Each chapter ends with a detailed timeline and there is an excellent index.  This is a book you can read quickly or linger over ... you can dip in or read from the first page to the last.  What ever way you read this book you are sure to learn something new and fascinating and perhaps slightly gruesome.  Watch this little film where Tony Robinson visits an exhibition about the worst jobs.

I would pair this book with some fiction titles such as A very unusual Pursuit, Barnaby Crimes Curse of the Night Wolf, Midnight is a place and Lydie by Katherine Paterson.

I have discovered there are other titles in this series such as these books about World War I and World War II which are popular topics in our library.  These should go on the library shopping list.

Midnight is a place by Joan Aiken

“So how you can you teach people not to worry?’ ‘You ask some large size questions’ .. ‘You can do it in two ways. … Either you make their lives so much better that they don’t have to worry – or you teach them that worrying doesn’t help, but is only a waste of time.’ … ‘I think both ways together would be best,’ said Anna-Marie. ‘For some people will always be worrying – if only about whether the soup is going to be thick enough or the milk will go sour. So you make them comfortable and you tell them not to unquiet themselves.”

Wisdom like this abounds in Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken. This is another old book from our library collection. We have disposed of this copy but re-reading it over the last two days has convinced me to purchase a new copy. It was first published in 1974 but Joan Aiken is such a skilled writer this book must be considered a classic.

If you are an adult reader who loved Oliver Twist and other novels by Charles Dickens then you will want your child to read Midnight is a Place. The only difficulty for a young reader might be the phonetic spelling Aiken uses for the various English and French accents but I am sure with a little perseverance a young reader will manage these. The Secret Garden is one possible way to introduce this way of writing.

Lucas has lost both his parents and has been sent to live with his guardian Sir Randolph who is a drunken gambler. Sir Randolph fraudulently won the estate of Midnight Court following a wager many years earlier. As the story opens Lucas has been living in this house for two years with only his tutor, Mr Oakapple, for company. It is Luc’s birthday tomorrow and as he looks forlornly out the window he sees a carriage arrive containing a young French girl. Before Lucas can discover why this girl has been sent to Midnight Court or exactly how she is connected to the family, he is taken down to the mill.

The mill is a carpet factory. It is an incredibly dangerous place. “It was not so much that the sights were frightening, though some were that; but they were so strange, so totally unfamiliar compared with anything that he had ever seen before; the shapes and movements of the machines were so black, quick, ugly, or sudden; the noises were so atrociously loud, the heat was so blistering, the smells so sickly, acid or stifling.” The most awful part is the pressing machine. The carpets are spread out under a great metal slab. Very young children work as snatchers. They must quickly run onto the carpet before the press falls to remove any fluff or dirt. Just prior to Lucas’s arrival a young child has been killed.

The grimy town, factories, unions and poverty are reminiscent of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and Lyddie by Katherine Paterson or Bread and Roses, too.
Lucas and Anna-Marie do have a special destiny but before this can be fulfilled both will be in great danger. Lucas will be forced to work as a tosher looking for treasure in the underground sewers. These scenes are so vividly explained you will feel the claustrophobia, smell the stench and hear the rats and hogs as they charge after human flesh. Meanwhile Anna-Marie will go to work at the carpet mill where she will experience some of the horrors I just described first hand. Luckily both children will find some true friends and their good sense, kindness towards one another and ingenuity will save the day.

I highly recommend Midnight is a Place. You can read more of the plot here. Also there was a television series.