Growing Up in Coal Country

Book Description

Inspired by her in-laws' recollections of working in coal country, Susan Campbell Bartoletti has gathered the voices of men, women, and children who immigrated to and worked in northeastern Pennsylvania at the turn of the century. The story that emerges is not just a story of long hours, little pay, and hazardous working conditions; it is also the uniquely American story of immigrant families working together to make a new life for themselves. It is a story of hardship and sacrifice, yet also of triumph and the fulfillment of hopes and dreams.

Customer Reviews:

The Best Book About Coal Mine History.......2006-05-14

I love this book. There are more photos than any other book I've found about the history of coal mining in America. I'm so thankful that this book is out there. The photos of children who worked in the coal mine are heartbreaking. Much praise is heaped.

growing up (or not) in coal country.......2002-04-12

i've been researching the history of the anthracite region and specifically the experience of miners and their families, and this was one of the most useful books i've seen. by detailing the different jobs the boys in the mines did, bartoletti also manages to describe how a mine worked in ways that other books on mining don't really explain. it covers the whole process by telling stories about the different jobs the kids did.

the photos too are wonderful. you get a real sense of how much these kids are both children and yet so remarkably grown up, just from the looks in their eyes.

the stories about them range from terrifically sad (i cried a few times) to heartwarming and sweet. the book doesn't come off as bombast or pure sentiment, but keeps a very journalistic view of these kids & their reality.

i highly recommend it.

Glimpses from a bygone era.......2000-11-05

This is a fascinating book about the life and times of the coal miners in Pennsylvania when "coal was king" and child labor laws were things of the future. The photographs, especially those involving children, are haunting; and Susan Bartoletti's text is lucid and poignant. Impressions of the "breaker boys", "nippers", "spraggers", and the "fire boss" lingered in my mind long after I finished reading this book.

Growing Up in Coal Country.......2000-08-16

A very interesting little book for anyone who grew up in or has an interest in the history of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Region. The stories in this book apply to so many thousands of families that lived there and tried so hard to make a living under the harshest of conditions. Life was anything but easy for the anthracite miner and his family - no medical insurance (but then medical care was almost non-existent), no paid holidays, just dirty and dangerous work. The book is brief, reads easy but generally does a good job of telling it like it was back then and in that place.

Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told By Themselves

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Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told By Themselves

Manufacturer: Lawrence Hill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Teens | Subjects | Books

Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Teens | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1556526350

Book Description

Ten slaves—all under the age of 19—tell stories of enslavement, brutality, and dreams of freedom in this collection culled from full-length autobiographies. These accounts, selected to help teenagers relate to the horrific experiences of slaves their own age living in the not-so-distant past, include stories of young slaves torn from their mothers and families, suffering from starvation, and being whipped and tortured. But these are not all tales of deprivation and violence; teenagers will relate to accounts of slaves challenging authority, playing games, telling jokes, and falling in love. These stories cover the range of the slave experience, from the passage in slave ships across the Atlantic—and daily life as a slave both on large plantations and in small-city dwellings—to escaping slavery and fighting in the Civil War. The writings of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Keckley, and other lesser-known slaves are included.

Welcome to Addy's World, 1864: Growing Up During America's Civil War (American Girls Collection)

Average customer rating:

Wonderful Book
Of Course It's about Slavery
Great Book!
Worst book in the series

Welcome to Addy's World, 1864: Growing Up During America's Civil War (American Girls Collection)
Susan Sinnott
Manufacturer: American Girl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1562477714

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Book.......2006-12-21

I purchased this book for my grandaughter and we have enjoyed reading it together. Since I am a civil war buff, I can commend this book for its historical accuracy and relevance. It has been great to share my favorite historical period with my grandaughter in a format that is easy for her to understand. The drawings and pictures are excellent. I agree with the previous reviewer. Yes, this book deals with slavery, because that was THE issue during the civil war. All of our children, regardless of race, need to be educated about the Civil War. And that would be impossible to accomplish by limiting or eliminating information on slavery and the major role it played before, during, and after America's Civil War.

Of Course It's about Slavery.......2006-07-22

This book is a great introduction to children about a difficult subject. It is well-written without being too heavy for a youngster. I am somewhat irritated at a previous review, stating that the book focuses too much on slavery and "not enough time spent on life during the Civil War." I hope others reading this book with their children realize that it is about a young black girl who is growing up in the institution of slavery. For her and actual slaves like her, this was "life during the Civil War."

Great Book!.......2000-07-03

This is really good! I felt like I was there!

Worst book in the series.......2000-05-04

There was too much time spent in the book on slavery and not enough time spent on life during the Civil War.

Up Before Daybreak: Cotton And People In America

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A fascinating book for kids -- and adults
But I never picked cotton like my mother did, and my sister did, and my brother did, and my daddy died young . . .
Richie's Picks: UP BEFORE DAYBREAK

Up Before Daybreak: Cotton And People In America
Deborah Hopkinson
Manufacturer: Scholastic Nonfiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0439639018

Book Description

In UP BEFORE DAYBREAK, acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson captures the voices of the forgotten men, women, and children who worked in the cotton industry in America over the centuries. The voices of the slaves who toiled in the fields in the South, the poor sharecroppers who barely got by, and the girls who gave their lives to the New England mills spring to life through oral histories, archival photos, and Hopkinson's engaging narrative prose style. These stories are amazing and often heartbreaking, and they are imbedded deep in our nation's history.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating book for kids -- and adults.......2006-10-10

Like the author's nonfiction book, Shutting out the Sky, Up Before Daybreak makes history come alive by focusing on the lives of real people. Hopkinson does not talk down to young readers -- instead, she encourages them to look at the past in ways that reach beyond a history textbook. If nothing else, the photos in this beautiful book are a reminder of why it is important that all of us make an effort to understand the past.

But I never picked cotton like my mother did, and my sister did, and my brother did, and my daddy died young . . ........2006-10-09

As a children's librarian, one of my jobs is to recommend non-fiction to kids that they'll actually read. Interesting non-fiction. Now when I was a kid you couldn't have bribed me with all the peanut butter cups in the world to pick up a non-fiction book that didn't deal with animals in some fashion. So with my twelve-year-old self planted firmly in the back of my mind, I set out to discover whether or not Deborah Hopkinson's, "Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People In America", would be something a child would find themselves voluntarily reading. Ms. Hopkinson had a very good 2006 publishing year, by the way. When she wasn't creating picture books like "Sky Boys" to celebrate the construction of the Empire State Building she was writing gripping historical fiction like "Into the Firestorm" for the young `uns. Of these three 2006 ventures, however, "Up Before Daybreak" is the trickiest. You have to talk about a staple, how it affected the economy, the toll on human lives and do all this in an engaging factual manner. Some parts of this book work better than others and some parts garner more interest as well. "Up Before Daybreak" is a worthy effort to follow cotton and how it changed America. I'm just not entirely convinced that it's the best of Ms. Hopkinson's non-fiction work.

King Cotton. It's one of those national products that made America what it is today. Tracing the beginning of cotton production from the birth of our nation onwards, the reader comes to understand how this fluffy white flower came to stand at the center of our nation's economy. We see the birth of the cotton gin and the rise of slavery in the South. We watch as the Civil War neatly dismantles the farms and sharecropping rises. At the same time, the history of the mills that spun the cotton and the birth of the American Industrial Revolution all work together to bring us a well-rounded picture of cotton in all its myriad forms and how it affected the people that came in contact with it.

The book is neatly divided into two sections. The first is all that happened with cotton before the Civil War and the second all that happened after. Not only does Ms. Hopkinson discuss at length the effects that both slavery and sharecropping had on white and black workers, but she answers some questions I myself had about the times. For example, why do we never hear about any black mill workers? Well, that may have something to do with the fact that blacks tended to be barred from mill work (always excepting housekeeping and hard labor). Though the text jumps back in forth in time depending on the subject, the reader never gets the feeling that the story is difficult to follow. And while the effect of all of this on children is certainly a large part of the book's focus, adults get just as much attention as well.

Which is maybe why I was a little baffled to find that labor unions didn't really get mentioned in the book. Unionism is reduced to a single paragraph on page 78 and a sentence on page 79, and even then it speaks of a unsuccessful attempt in September 1934. Other small mentions are made of unions, but none are more than a sentence or two here and there and a child reader could be forgiven for assuming through this book that all attempts to unionize mills were unsuccessful.

Yet the book is magnificent in its factual information. First of all, the photos in the book are top notch. Spottted regularly throughout the text they show cotton in different eras, to say nothing of different mill workers throughout the decades. I loved the Selected Bibliography which even went so far as to include "Articles, Oral Histories, Narratives, Bulletins, and Pamphlets". The Notes that go chapter by chapter are copious, and the Index easy to use. But the best part of the book, to my eyes, was the suggested "Further Reading For Young People". How many times have I gotten through a non-fiction book and found the author skimpy on helping kids find further information on a given subject? Well, Ms. Hopkinson is on the case. She even goes so far as to split this section into the books and websites on cotton in the fields vs. cotton in the mills. Manifique.

Sadly, this isn't to say that the book doesn't get a little bogged down in unnecessary facts. Take, for example, the cotton factor John Chrystie. While learning about what a "cotton factor" was is interesting, his story slows significantly when we get a physical description of the warehouse he worked and lived in. Kids reading this book may certainly be interested in the job of factors, but it seems a bit excessive to expect them to keep reading through sentences like, "In the evening we sit in our offices and play whist, or read papers when they come or write letters." I would have liked a couple diagrams to take their place. We hear that picking cotton was a nasty painful job, but we never see a diagram or picture of what a head of cotton looked like. Visualizing is all well and good but it would be nice to see a single head of cotton, if only to understand what the subject of this book even looked like. When a former picker says of cotton that, "When they open up, there's a little point on every one of those at the edge of the burs", you want to see what that means. There is one picture of cotton bolls, but they're not presented in a way that allows you to understand why picking them would be difficult. Ms. Hopkinson also assumes that we understand the history of the boll weevil, so it comes up casually in the text without any history. What is a "boll weevil"? What does it look like? Why did they suddenly appear en masse during the Great Depression? Kids like pictures and they like evil insects. To not include either in the book reduces the story's kid-friendly appeal, which is a pity considering the author's sheer wealth of information.

It would have been nice to hear what the current state of the American cotton industry was. However, it's difficult to fault how Hopkinson smartly ties in this story of slavery and human pain to the 246 MILLION children who work cotton fields all over the globe today. Kudos to Hopkinson then for the sentence in the book's final paragraph, "The next time you buy clothes made of cotton, take time to look at the label. Consider doing some research to see what working conditions are like where that cloth was made." Altogether, the book is a funny mix of good and bad. There were some elements unaddressed and excluded that could have made the title stronger as a whole, and I'm not entirely convinced that many children would read this for pleasure, but it's a fascinating topic and an interesting time in our nation's history. A good if slightly flawed book.

Richie's Picks: UP BEFORE DAYBREAK.......2006-07-14

A slave named Henry Kirk Miller was fourteen when freedom arrived with the end of the Civil War. Later he recalled how his former owner had needed money and had sold off one of Henry's sisters, taking cotton in exchange:

" 'I remember hearing them tell about the big price she brought because cotton was so high,' said Henry. 'Old mistress got 15 bales of cotton for sister...It was only a few days till freedom came and the man who had traded all them bales of cotton lost my sister, but old mistress kept the cotton.' "

I'm in touch with cotton on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, what could be closer to me? Closer than my plaid flannel boxers ("100% COTTON, Made in Bangladesh")? Closer than my Beatles Yellow Submarine Picture Book tee-shirt ("100% COTTON, Knit in U.S.A, Assembled in Honduras")? Closer than my Levi Strauss Relaxed Fit 550 Jeans (100% COTTON, Made in Mexico)? Or the soft pillow case under my head as I read this fascinating book (100% COTTON, Made in Bulgaria)? Yup, I've got some significant daily connections to cotton.

As noted by author Deborah Hopkinson, "Growing up, I never fully understood how important those old, run-down mills had been to our country's history. The evidence was right before my eyes, but I couldn't imagine the past. I couldn't see Lowell as a vibrant center of new technology or understand the forces that had left it broken and economically depressed."

Like Hopkinson's experience with Lowell, Massachusetts, I also have a bit of experience with run-down mills. In the mid-Seventies, during my years as an undergraduate student at UConn, I would frequently head down the road to the nearby mill town of Willimantic, whose nickname "Thread City" has since been memorialized by the giant spools of thread upon which the Willimantic Frog Bridge frogs sit. (Check out the bridge at http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/br-frog.html.) My destination in Willimantic was Shaboo, a cavernous club serving up big-name live music that operated -- of course -- in an old textile factory building.

As I learned through a bit of my own searching, the Willimantic Linen Company used to be Connecticut's largest employer. At one time they produced 85,000 miles of thread each day. Its modern-era successor, the American Thread Company, still had a presence in town during my collegiate days. And as I also discovered, another of the old buildings in Willimantic, which has recently been renovated as part of the development of a modern business and technology center, was the world's first mill to be illuminated by electric lights -- said to be Thomas Edison's first paying job!

Whether it be factories, farms, or struggling families, Deborah Hopkinson has done an exceptional job here of researching the various threads of the history of cotton in America, and of pulling them together into an engaging story that, in turn, reveals so much about the broader history of our country. What makes the story most interesting is her ability to repeatedly illustrate significant aspects by referring to the words of real characters she uncovered in her research:

"Laura Nichols from Connecticut wanted to earn her own money. She hoped to get more education, but her parents couldn't afford to help her. So Laura took a job in a mill near her home, determined not to give up her hopes for the future.
"Years later, Laura told her own children how hard she had been willing to work for her dreams. Laura believed there was 'something better within my reach and I must have it or die in the attempt. I began to realize that my future would be largely what I make of it, that my destiny was, as it were, in my own hands.'
"New England girls like Laura were part of a new chapter in American history. The early years in Lowell and other mill towns of New England marked the first time large numbers of women moved away from their families to cities to take jobs far from home."

But, as is seen repeatedly throughout the book, such manufacturing work was initially done for low wages, beginning at incredibly young ages, and was carried out at a rapid pace throughout obscenely long work days with no ventilation, and under conditions that frequently led to permanent injury. Very young people who grew old while literally spending the majority of their lives inside the walls of those mills were the victims upon whose tragic lives the modern era of child labor laws, compulsory education, safe working conditions, and minimum wages were eventually and belatedly built.

Of course, the mills were (and will be) seen by many as an improvement over the lives of sharecroppers and tenant farmers who always faced the possibility of working similarly long hours and of coming away without a cent to show for a hard year's work. For instance, Walter Strange, who began sharecropping in 1911 at the age of 12, and who was interviewed in 1938 explained that:

" 'Last year I planted seven acres in cotton and made only one bale. I used poison, too. But the boll weevil ate up the cotton in spite of it,' said Walter. 'The fertilizer cost me one hundred dollars. I sold the cotton for fifty-two dollars. The loss on the fertilizer alone was forty-eight dollars, not counting the work and the other expense. I had to sell something else to finish paying for the fertilizer.' "

Young readers will undoubtedly be intrigued by Walter's beginning as a sharecropper in his own right at such a young age. In fact, whether it be from the narratives she's uncovered, or from viewing the wealth of photographs included throughout the book, so many of the characters Hopkinson brings us face to face with are very young people.

Thus, UP BEFORE DAYBREAK is an excellent example of bringing American history to life.

Growing Up in The People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution (Palgrave Studies in Oral History)

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Remarkable book
My Reflection
A must read
A message from the book author

Growing Up in The People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution (Palgrave Studies in Oral History)
Weili Ye
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1403969965
Release Date: 2005-11-24

Book Description

In conversational style and in chronological sequence, Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong recount their lives in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, a particularly eventful period that included the Cultural Revolution and the ensuing Communist regime. Using their own stories as two case studies, they examine the making of a significant yet rarely understood generation in recent Chinese history. They also reflect upon the mixed legacy of the early decades of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In doing so, the book strives for a balance between critical scrutiny of a complex era and the sweeping rejection of that era that recent victim literature embraces. Ultimately Ye and Ma intend to reconnect to a piece of land and a period of history that have given them a sense of identity. Their stories contain intertwining layers of personal, generational, and historical experiences. Unlike other memoirs that were written soon after the events of the Cultural Revolution, Ye and Ma's narratives have been put together some twenty years later, allowing for more critical distance. The passage of time has allowed them to consider important issues that other accounts omit, such as the impact of gender during this period of radical change in Chinese women's lives.

Customer Reviews:

Remarkable book.......2007-02-26

Weili's book is remarkable. I was struck by her honesty, studiousness of recording details, and courage of facing the past events, no matter how ugly they were, and searching for the truths and true feelings. One of the most memorable moments of the book was the story about Weili's mother, walking 20 miles, close to the distance of a Marathon, to give birth in the cold winter by herself in 1945. As a female soldier in the People's Liberation Army, Weili's mother had to go outside of the WWII Japanese controlled territory to avoid capture. She was crippled for many years after this experience. Weili's mother's personal story was an example of the war time suffering the Chinese people went through. Weili described this story to give background on her family and the Great Culture Revolution. Ironically, many people who suffered a great deal to establish the new government in 1949 were tormented, imprisoned, or killed during the Great Culture Revolution.

Why should one read Weili's oral history book on the Great Culture Revolution in China? Here are the reasons I would suggest:

1) To understand what happened in history.

Weili and Ma Xiao Dong's personal encounters were a part of the Chinese history, and a part of the human history. The author described the years of her youth spent in China when the daily reality seemed so unbelievable and crazy. A totalitarian region was created to isolate the 1 billion Chinese people from the rest of the world. It could be called the biggest scale social experiment. In the name of revolution, beating someone to death, looting, and public humiliation were common practice in those days. Once targeted as a counter-revolutionist for whatever reasons, one lost individual rights and faced physical attacks by the mobs.

Yet, those 10 traumatic years were not a total loss. The authors wanted to show you that living an innocent and simple life was somewhat possible at times for young people. The young people were initially enthusiastic to fight for the revolution and get reeducated by going to the country side. They were with people their age, away from home to serve as laborers on the farms for 5, 10, or even sometimes 20 years. They sang, performed, and made friends. Later, the reality of famine, poverty, and personal encounters in the country side left them confused and disillusioned. They matured beyond their years due to the sent-down experience.

2) To learn from this period of Chinese history. How did the Culture Revolution happen?

It happened mostly because Mao's communism "religion" dominated all. Weili's stories took us to a different time when everyone was labeled and categorized into 9 different "red" and "black" types. The man-made caste system marginalized the intellectuals and business people. So beware of religious fanatics or other ideology fanatics who would not tolerate others with different viewpoints, and do not let one voice dominate a country or a group. Masses can be brainwashed into a lot of ugly things such as killing neighbors who are identified as enemies. Racial violence and ethnic cleansings are examples of those belief systems in other parts of the world.

Second, life itself was not valued in the teaching of the time. Young kids were taught that life should be easily given up for a greater cause such as the revolution. There were plenty of books and films on the heroes who sacrificed lives for the new government. In addition, killing or beating an "enemy" was encouraged. Not respecting life was also one of the reasons that the Culture Revolution caused so much damage.

The third reason that the Culture Revolution occurred was due to the desire to negate history or anything old while jamming down a new belief system. The poetic side of Mao wanted to cleanse the past and create a new society. As Mao grew increasingly impatient with the speed of the progress, he resorted to extreme measures of "cleansing," - the Great Culture Revolution. The Red Guards (young people who pledged allegiance to the revolution) and the masses fought, killed, or tormented anything or anybody who were deemed counter-revolutionary. The violence was justified and praised. The Red Guards thought that they were doing the right thing for a cause. Later Red Guards fought each other because one group thought it was more revolutionary than another.

3) To appreciate women's perspectives on growing up during the culture revolution. The new government was supposed to have liberated women. They were equal to men in a lot of ways. Considering that women still had feet bound 50-60 years earlier, this was a remarkable accomplishment. Weili's mother was a combat pilot during the revolution. Weili's mother said that women must stand tall, which seemed to be something Hilary Clinton would have said.

However, the authors described what they experienced and learned as women, Chinese women specifically, in a male-dominated society. Weili's mother held leadership positions outside of the house, yet at home she cooked, cleaned, respected her husband's authority, and was a model wife. Women were expected to play these two different roles in a modern society. Moreover, the media and culture at the time encouraged young women to dress like soldiers with uniforms and heavy belts. Femininity was denied and considered "bourgeois." The young women at times did not want to be mothers because culturally motherhood devalued a woman and raising kids appeared to be hard, tedious, and not as meaningful as other work. If life is not valued, of course the tasks of raising kids are not respected.

The dialog format throughout the book was powerful and very easy to read. The author had a very crisp and clear writing style on some of the most difficult subjects. All in all, a terrific reading experience for me.

My Reflection.......2006-11-26

I believe a book is best useful when it makes me question myself or change my attitude. Ye and Ma's book is definitely one of such books. They help me see the Cultural Revolution in a new light.
Born after the Cultural Revolution, I do not have the opportunity to live this turbulent time myself. Identified as poor-peasants (pin-nong, though not peasant at all) and being non-intellectuals, both my father's and mother's families were not targeted or severely affected in the Cultural Revolution. Or if they were, they did a good job shielding me from that memory. My high school history book only gave a cursory glance at the Cultural Revolution, about which my history teacher did not take the liberty to say more. The notion that "this is a taboo" had been planted in my immature mind without myself knowing exactly where it came from. Therefore, I never thought about inquiring about it before I went to college.
Since then I came to understand how and why it was a mistake, a huge mistake that was almost irreparable. However, what has done cannot be undone. What we can do is to mind the present and create a better future to make up for the losses. I brought into the general morale of "looking-forward" (xiangqiankan, this is more telling in its homophone in Chinese which means "looking toward money") and felt reassured about it.
However, now being a graduate student in the United States, I was exposed to more western intellectual works. Their obsession with the Cultural Revolution made me unable to continue my "ostrich strategy." As one of the generation "growing up under the red flag," I read such starkly downbeat criticism of the Cultural Revolution as capitalism's unrelenting ideological attack on the Chinese Party: Cultural Revolution, as China's stigma, is the best topic they can engage in order to castigate China. Nationalist sentiment also made me reluctant to directly confront this traumatic national memory. Particularly, I had a hard time reading the "victim literature" produced by people who suffered during that time and later went to the West--the "land of free speech"--to let out their sorrow and hatred. I knew I was unfair to them--they have been so profoundly affected by that past that time cannot separate them from its horror or undo its effects. I also knew my resentment testified to the success of Chinese government's "thought control." However, no matter where my sources of rejecting the negative portrayal of the Cultural Revolution came from and no matter to what extent I could question myself, the more stark and inhuman the Cultural Revolution is depicted, the less I would trust the accounts.
Yet, Growing up in the People's Republic finally enabled me to comfortably and bravely face up to this burden of history. On the one hand, Ye honestly related the death of her school principal, the story that has haunted her for years, and Ma daringly confesses her participation in violence, which is made more compelling as she juxtaposes it with the violence her mother was afflicted with. The immense difficulty they have in "opening up deep wounds" reveals the highest moral integrity. On the other hand, their telling of the sweet childhood adds an intimate dimension to this supposedly brutal age. Ye's apathy to join the revolution in contrast to Ma's enthusiasm in embracing the "winds and waves" convinces me that they did not grow up "drinking wolf milk," as they are represented in some literature. The complexity of this era can only be understood by lending a humanistic understanding to the seemingly unimaginable individual behavior. By transforming the unbelievable into the understandable, what this book gives me touches at a level deeper than history.

A must read.......2006-11-02

This remarkable, very readable book is written as a conversation between two women born in Beijing at the same time as the People's Republic of China. As the women explore the similarities and differences in their experiences--from housing arrangements, to elementary school, to their roles in the early months of the Cultural Revolution, to the years spent working in rural China--the reader learns about the wide range of what it means to have grown up in the PRC. The result is a reflective, thought-full, and nuanced look at this tumultuous period in China's recent history.

A message from the book author.......2006-04-23

I am the author of the book Growing Up in the People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). I am very grateful to the press for bringing it out to the reader, yet I have to say I feel dismayed by the cover design. The actual cover is not the same as the one shown on Amonzon.com. The most conspicuous feature on the current cover is a rather mean-spirited looking Chinese soldier. Judging by the modern communication equipments he's is wearing, the soldier is a military policeman. Incidentally, the military police only began to appear in China in the 1980s. What does a soldier of the police force have to do with a book about the growing-up experiences of two women in the 1950s and 1960s?

Yet I understand right away the symbolic meaning of the soldier. What he represents is a dark, repressive "police state." It is exactly this highly simplistic and unrelievedly negative image of the PRC (People's Republic of China) that I question in the book. What my book presents is a multi-faceted picture of the "Mao era." Through the conversations between me and Ma Xiaodong (my conversational partner in the book), we try to sort out, from personal, generational, and gendered perspectives, the entangled history and mixed legacy of a complex age. What distinguishes my book from most of the existing personal memoirs on the Mao era is precisely this more nuanced and more reflective approach. Such a distinction is recognized by Prof. Paul Cohen in his Forward to the book as well as the description of the book on the back jacket.

Unfortunately, the current jacket design contradicts what the book is about. It misrepresents the book and undermines its central message. It is an irony that a book intending to reveal the many "shades of grey" of a complex world is packed in "black-and-white" color. As the author, I believe I should let my readers know what I think about the matter. It is also worth noting here that I was not consulted with about this design beforehand. In this specific case, there was a lack of communication between the press and the author.

Thank you very much for reading the book. I'd appreciate it deeply if I could hear your feedback.

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Pueblo Boy: Growing Up in Two Worlds
Marcia Keegan
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0140369457

Dreaming In Color Living In Black And White: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America (Children of Conflict (Young Readers))

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INTERESTING BOOK
It was good.
Amazed

Dreaming In Color Living In Black And White: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America (Children of Conflict (Young Readers))
Laurel Holliday
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 0671041274

Book Description

"I constantly questioned myself as a child. All of the positive images of poeple I'd seen were white. To be beautiful, ou not only had to be stick-skinny, with no behind, you had to have long silky blong hair and blue eyes, a thin nose, and thin lips. I just didn't measure up."
-- Charisse Nesbit, Maryland

These true stories from every part of America tell what it was like growing up in world where the color of people's skin set them apart.

How do you feel when a teacher doesn't believe that you wrote the story he thinks is great?

How can you make friends and belong in a black school when your father is black and your mother is Puerto Rican?

What do you do whn you're working in the kitchen o a summer camp in Vermont, but you're not allowed to swim in the camp lake?

All the writer's pain, confusion, humiliation, and rage are vividly expressed. but many of them went on to struggle against overwhelming odds and realize their dreams. Their voices offer hope, inspiration, and a challenge to us all.

Customer Reviews:

INTERESTING BOOK.......2007-01-01

Dreaming In Color Living In Black And White: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America by Laurell Holliday is about a girl name Sarah. She thinks everything around her is full of darkness because of her skin color.She is a good girl and a very smart student. She does everything just to impress her teacher and all the people around her. The people don`t even care how hard she works. No matter what she does or write in school that is good or even excellent,the teachers never believe that she did it,just because she was black. One day she decided to quit her job as a cook and follow the footsteps of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. to change the world. I think the book was good because it shows us how black people suffered. I recommend this book to everyone. Everyone should read this book! BY: MOHAMED

It was good........2006-04-28

This book was very exciting. It shows how blacks were discriminated. It tell story's about blacks from the 20 century or it shows you present day prejidism. This book open minds telling story's of great blacks you never even heard of. It shows how much blacks took and how blacks are taking it now. I reccommend this book to young people.

Amazed.......2000-04-13

Wow! This book was so touching and emotional. I read this book a few days ago after I saw it in the library. It consists of many different experiences of African-American people who suffered discrimination and racial abuse. It goes deep and shows you how it really was like to be them and how they felt. The *N word appears numerous of times so it might offend some people. I would really recommend this book to anyone!

Average customer rating:

Growing Up in the People's Century
John D. Clare
Manufacturer: BBC Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

The Interracial Experience: Growing Up Black/White Racially Mixed in the United States

Average customer rating:

From a Parent of an Interracial Child
intriguing book
A Tremendous Book
What it's all about

The Interracial Experience: Growing Up Black/White Racially Mixed in the United States
Ursula M. Brown
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Discrimination & Racism | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Occupational & Organizational | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0275970469

Book Description

The number of black-white mixed marriages increased by 504% in the last 25 years. By offering relevant demographic, research, and sociocultural data as well as a series of intensely personal and revealing vignettes, Dr. Brown investigates how mixed race people cope in a world that has shoehorned them into a racial category that denies half of their physiological and psychological existence. She also addresses their struggle for acceptance in the black and white world and the racist abuses many of them have suffered. Brown interweaves research findings with interviews of children of black-white interracial unions to highlight certain psychosocial phenomenon or experiences. She looks at the history of interracial marriages in the United States and discusses the scientific and social theories that underlie the racial bigotry suffered by mixed people. Questions of racial identity, conflict, and self-esteem are treated as are issues of mental health. An important look at contemporary mixed race issues that will be of particular interest to scholars, researchers, students, and professionals dealing with race, family, and mental health concerns.

Customer Reviews:

From a Parent of an Interracial Child.......2001-02-18

As a parent of a mixed race child I have been troubled by the extreme lack of research and literature that addresses the adjustment of mixed race children. This book finally addresses this gap. The author highlights the unique emotional and social needs of interracial people. I found her discussion of experiences in the family, community, school and dating that help or undermine the adjustment of interracial children particularly helpful. I enjoyed hearing about their longings, ambitions, social lives and love relationships. I was also very pleased that she challenged some of the myths that have tainted the image of interracial people. The stories of the people the author interviewed are extremely poignant and so is the analysis and interpretation of their accounts. I learned a lot of new information from this book. Most of all, however, it helped me to better understand the needs of my child.

intriguing book.......2001-01-20

i enjoyed this book immmensely. everyone should read, especally those of mixed heritage. the book helped me understand issues that i went through and showed me that i am not alone in my struggles as an interracial person.

A Tremendous Book.......2001-01-04

The book is a wonderful discussion of the factors that influence an interracial person's racial identity. Some books I have read on this topic were nothing more than an individual's reflections on the issue. Other books were too scientific and uninteresting. This book, however, is an incredible mix of excerpts from dozens of interviews with interracial people, as well as an on-point analysis of the import of what they are saying. The book also speaks to many things that interracial people think and feel, but seldom discuss with others.

I am glad someone wrote this book as it relates to far more than just black / white mixes. Indeed, it relates to any racial or cross-cultural mix.

What it's all about.......2000-11-27

Someone is finally getting past the superficial and looking deeply and objectively at factors that contribute to interracial peoples' race identities. Although the book focuses on black / white mixes, the information and experiences are relevant to all intercultural and interracial relationships. The book also sheds light onto many of the racial stereotypes and little-spoken of biases that pervade inter and intra-race relations in our society.

Book Description

"I let somebody call me 'nigger.' It wasn't just any old body, either; it was my friend. That really hurt."
-- Amitiyah Elayne Hyman

Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of a day when black children were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. His eloquent charge became the single greatest inspiration for the achievement of racial justice in America. In her powerful fourth book in the Children of Conflict series, Laurel Holliday explores how far we have come as she presents thirty-eight African-Americans who share their experiences as Children of the Dream.

"I was brought up with white Barbie dolls of impossible proportions and long silky blonde hair -- neither of which I possessed. As a child I believed what I was taught, and I wasn't taught to love myself for who I am -- an African-American."
-- Charisse Nesbit

The unforgettable people we hear from are young and old, rich and poor, from inner cities, suburbia, and rural America. In chronicles that are highly personal, funny, tragic, and triumphant, the contributors tell us what it is like coming of age stigmatized by the color of their skin, yet proud of their heritage and culture.

Their voices, their courage, their resilience -- and their understanding -- offer hope for us all.

Customer Reviews:

Hurts, wounds, hopes and triumphs of growing up Black.......1999-06-12

Children Of The Dream A review by Gunter David Ft. Washington, PA

In the age of the status quo between black and white in American, when the races have social contact mainly at work, rarely at home, Children Of The Dream: Our Own Stories Of Growing Up Black In America makes a vital contribution. For how are we to know about each other, except by reading of inner thoughts and feelings, since most of us don't openly talk to each other?

This book is filled with memoirs of Afro-Americans struggling to come to terms with the color of their skin in a white world. But unlike other books having covered the same terrain, this volume describes the experiences of children, as told by adults looking back. The hurts, the wounds, but also the hopes and triumphs are recounted in the first person. They make for deeply personal stories, both revealing and informative.

Among the most moving is the very first in the book, "The Question" - a recollection by Arline Lorraine Piper of how her grandmother fed hungry white men during the Depression, when her own family had little to spare. "Sticks And Stones And Words And Bones" by Amitiyah Elayne Hyman, tells of relationships with white neighbors. There is sadness and a sense of loss in "My First Friend (My Blond-Haired, Blue-Eyed Linda)" by Marion Coleman Brown, on the theme of how children are taught to hate. And then there is "White Friends" by Bernestine Singley, a bitter indictment of both black and white social values.

The book is the latest in editor Laurel Holliday's "The Children Of The Conflict" series. Her introductions of each story beautifully set the scene. The pictures of the authors as children provide an illuminating touch.

A book of relevance to everyone who has experienced racism.......1999-05-19

As a reader from outside America, this book was a revelation about a society which has so much to offer the world and yet often sells its own citizens short. Anyone, black or white who has ever experienced racism anywhere in the world will recognise themselves in these stories. It would be invidious to name specific writers from the collection, there is not a bad story in it which is to the credit of all the contributors but also to the work of Laurel Holliday who has brought yet another fine collection of stories by ordinary people to the reading public. What makes this collection exceptional is that it deals not only with racism by whites oppressing blacks, but the equally significant evil of blacks who seek to denigrate their brothers and sisters for 'not being black enough'. This is something which is recognisable to all who live in areas of racial or sectarian conflict. I wish that this book could be made compulsory reading for every school child, along with previous Laurel Holliday collections dealing with Palestine/Israel, Ireland and the victims of WW2 and the Holocaust. Read this book, it really will change the way you think!

"ýout of the mouths of babes".......1999-04-02

Each essay spoke right to me. Some whispered and others shouted, but I knew exactly where the sound was coming from. Mind you, those hurts and slights may have happened quite awhile ago, but the memories seemed to have shaped (and are shaping) some extraordinary individuals. Will be giving this book to many people and genuinely hoarding my first edition copy.

These stories are literally our own. New voices, old truths........1999-03-29

Arline Lorraine Piper, author of the award-winning story, "The Question," in CHILDREN OF THE DREAM, captures the essence of the anthology in her extremely modest description of herself. "If I am at all extraordinary," she says, "it is in my willingness to expose my truth to myself, so that my truth can also be accessible to you. But this effort on my part to be ruthlessly honest with myself will only have full significance for you if it empowers you to the same honesty with yourself...." Welcome to the victors' tales, stories not merely of survival and overcoming, but of ultimately prevailing. With enormous range, across class, color, gender, age, lifestyles and experience, the stories in ruthless, honest remembering. For a nation suffering from collective amnesia where race is concerned, CHILDREN OF THE DREAM is a powerful cure. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, sometimes subtle, sometimes in-your-face, each vignette is its own reminder of exactly how things on the race front got to be the way they are. This is a dialogue on race, voiced by people on the street, telling it the way it always has been and, regrettably, still is. CHILDREN OF THE DREAM is one more piece of evidence contradicting the popular, simplistic notion that there is one authentic Black experience. For instance, even though it happens to be my own story, not all African Americans grew up in single parent homes in the ghetto struggling to make ends meet. Dawn Bennett-Alexander's "(R)Evolution of Black and White" humorously, yet compellingly, makes just this point and Staajabu's "255 Sycamore Street" and Robert E. Penn's "War" go on to reinforce it. CHILDREN OF THE DREAM is a book for the entire family. Any young adult, for instance, can relate to the two 19-year old Bennett-Alexander sisters who share their experiences from markedly different perspectives in "The Black Experience" and "Betrayal in Black and White." When their baby sister, 9-year old Tess Alexandra, weighs in with her clear-eyed essay, "'Mixed' Emotions," even the youngest school-age child can hear and understand her voice. And as if that weren't enough, I dare you to remain unmoved after reading Antoine P. Reddick's brave but heartbreaking "All the Black Children" and then flip to Toure's "Blackmanwalkin," a young man's joyful tribute to his father. Finally, for those who think virulent racism is a thing of times past, apartheid lives well and prospers next door, on the bus, in school. Laurel Holliday has done something quite extraordinary. Once again, in this her last in the "Children of Conflict" series, she has stepped back and made it possible for readers to hear, without filters, the enormously varied voices of ordinary people speaking as the experts they are on growing up, in this instance, Black in America. CHILDREN OF THE DREAM offers readers the gift of entering the 21st century less ignorant, less divided, less mean-spirited, less smug, more generous, more hopeful, more sensitive, more empowered to face the clear and still present truth about racism's destruction. Make no mistake though. As one of the contributors to the anthology, I assure you that we do not point fingers, seek sympathy, or even threaten retribution. Rather, we have laid open pieces of our lives so you can see how we are all shaped, for good and bad, by the same forces. As with all gifts, you may take these or leave them. But for the wise ones, who desire a new, empowered, awakened way of racial being, the choice will be perfectly obvious

An intimate view of Black youth's struggle with racism.......1999-02-09

This is a must read for all people. Each story is a personal glimpse, on an intimate level with the struggle to survive in a racist society. Some stories made me laugh out loud and some brought tears to my eyes. I am one of the authors. I had no idea how many others had felt my pain. Wish I could purchase a book for everybody I know.

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