Bread and Roses, Too

By Katherine Paterson

Review by Viviane

Rosa, the star of Katherine Paterson’s novel Bread and Roses, Too, is just about your average 10-year-old girl; she wants to do well in school, and live a good life despite her father’s unfortunate death. However, there is one very big thing getting in her way: the Bread and Roses strike of 1912 is beginning, and Rosa’s world is going crazy.

When Rosa’s story takes place, the mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts are in an uproar over rapidly decreasing wages. It started with just people walking out of work, and marching in the streets. Then, it got bad. Annie Lopizzo was killed. Now things were really getting ugly, and it was too dangerous for children to stay.

Rosa didn’t want to leave her whole family behind, but her mother made her go to Barre, Vermont, until the strike was over. So one cold day, she heads out to the train station with her mom, sister, and baby brother. As she boards the train, Rosa notices someone curled up under the seat. She soon realizes it is a boy she’s met before. He says that he wants to go to New York. Rosa tells him to get off the train, but the boy assumes that she means he should leave because he doesn’t have permission to come. By the time he realizes they are Vermont-bound, it’s too late to go back. Now, he will have to pose as Rosa’s nonexistent brother Salvatore…and both children will have to deal with the web of lies they are weaving.

Any fan of historical fiction will probably enjoy Bread and Roses, Too. Be warned, though; if you don’t like stories with a mild amount of violence and some deaths, this isn’t the book for you.