Name: Hear My Sorrow
ISBN: 9780439221610

Deborah Hopkinson

Forced to drop out of school at the age of fourteen to help support her family, Angela, an Italian immigrant, works long hours for low wages in a garment factory, and becomes a participant in the shirtwaist worker strikes of 1909.

The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker

Hear My Sorrow

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

One thing I find amazing about the Dear America books is that at the end in the epilogue I always wonder if this is a fictional book based on a real person or simply a fictional character living through real events. The epilogue always seems so real.

This book focused on the life of Angela Denato, a fourteen/fifteen year old girl forced to drop out of school in order to work to support her family. Angela struggles with the desire to strike and earn better working conditions for all of the girls around her, including her older sister who never had the benefit of going to school and having to help provide for her family because her father was often out of work and her younger sister struggled with sickness that eventually claimed her life.

I've often thought about what I would do if I were in that situation. I believe that a person needs to submit to authority and thus I do not really support modern day strikes such as the current writer's strike. I do see how that unless these people made the effort to strike working conditions would never have changed or at least would have taken many more years and the lives of many more innocent poor.

It's an interesting conundrum and very thought provoking.

Hear My Sorrow The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker