Lyddie, By Katherine Paterson

Summary | Reviews | In the Classroom | Related Books of Interest | Bulletin Board

Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 182 pp., ages 9-12

After her father abandons the family, young Lyddie Worthen's mother hires Lyddie out to pay his debts. When Lyddie hears about the mill jobs in Lowell, Massachusetts, she travels there with the goal of earning enough money to reunite her family. Six days a week from dawn to dusk, Lyddie and many other girls operate weaving looms in the murky lint-filled factory. When the working conditions begin to affect her friends' health, Lyddie has to make a choice. Will she protest the poor working conditions and risk her job-and her dream-or remain quiet?

Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"Paterson…clearly depicts the effects of poverty during the 19th century, focusing on the plight of factory workers enslaved by their dismal jobs. Impeccably researched and expertly crafted, this book is sure to satisfy those interested in America's industrialization period."

From Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"A remarkable portrait of an untutored but intelligent young woman making her way against fierce odds."

School Library Journal
"Strong characterization and a solid sense of time and place."

In the Classroom

Encourage your students to explore the experiences of American girls and women by reading both fiction and nonfiction books. Ask your students to read Lyddie and at least one other historical account. (Please see suggestions below.) Have them compare and contrast the settings, the main protagonists and their experiences. Then, ask your students to role-play dramatic situations/historical moments from the books, i.e. Lyddie's refusal to sign the petition, or Lyddie's dismissal from the factory. Discuss with your students the choices they made while role-playing. How might they have handled the situation, and why? How are things different today for women?

Related Books of Interest

Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
By Penny Colman
Knopf, 120 pp., ages 9-12

This award-winning book looks at how millions of women fought World War II from the home front by taking nontraditional jobs in defense plants, factories, and anywhere else workers were needed.

Turn Homeward, Hannalee
By Patricia Beatty
William Morrow & Company, 208 pp., ages 9-12

During the Civil War, twelve-year-old Hannalee and hundreds of young millworkers in Yankee-occupied Georgia are branded as traitors for making cloth and rope for the Confederacy. Forced to relocate to Indiana, Hannah leaves her mother with a promise to return home as soon as the war ends.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
By Elizabeth George Speare
Houghton Mifflin Co., 256 pp., young adult
1959 Newbery Medal Winner

A high-spirited teenage girl named Kit rebels against the narrow-minded ways of Puritan Connecticut and befriends an old Quaker woman who is known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond. Soon Kit is accused of witchcraft and must defend her life.

War Comes to Willy Freeman
By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 192 pp., ages 9-12

Willy Freeman's life changes when she witnesses the death of her father by the Redcoats and returns home to find that the British have taken her mother as a prisoner to New York City. Willy, disguised as a boy, begins to search for her mother and discovers that to be black, female, and free leaves her open to many dangers.

Sarah, Plain and Tall
By Patricia MacLachlan
HarperCollins Children's Books, 58 pp., ages 9-12
1986 Newbery Medal Winner

In this award-winning story, a widowed midwestern farmer with two children invites a mail-order bride from Maine to their prairie home.

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