Review: on our way to Oyster bay. Mother Jones and her march for children’s rights.
This story is about 2 children’s point of view during the industrial revolution and their journey with Mother Jones to combat Child labor and stand up for children’s rights all around the U.S

I really liked this book. It shows a nice sweet story that is elegantly told in the point of view of two kids during the industrial revolution. A point of view rarely shown in kid’s books and often overlooked in history. This was a good way to connect students to the time period and really be in their shoes. As for memory I can see this story being remembered FOR the point of view of the children which is unique. However other than that there is not much going for it. There May be a internal theme of keep working on what you believe in but it is not addressed much. The art was well done very stylized with many colors. However, I don’t believe it did anything TOO well to stay relevant just above average and not much going on with the images to dissected with the class. Word difficulty was also average which prob wont advance readers vocabulary by much. Saying this however it does get the job done and can see this being told to a k-2nd grade classroom. The info given was interesting but interesting enough to be remembered by a child? Most likely not after a week or two especially with no strong theme backing it up. Overall a solid book that I wish had more but was in all terms good.
Memorability 4/5
Art 2.5/5
Enjoyment 3/5
Word Difficulty 2/5
Interesting info 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5
Best Use: Read Aloud to the class/Example reading ( )

The book tells a story of mother jones and her fight for equal right for all children. The crowd through muddy roads and rain all the way from Pennsylvania to New York, in order to meet president Roosevelt and claim the right for children who used to work twelve hours six days a week. This will be a great book to read to students during a social studies class to show them that someone fought for their rights, and what they went through to accomplish those rights. ( )

This is an informational picture storybook about the march to Oyster Bay by mother Jones and her "army" of child workers. It succeeds at what it is meant to be...I suppose. I realize that the audience is meant to be lower school grade children and thus there should be a degree of caution in including the sad, painful, and arduous adventure that was the march to Oyster Bay. But, this book depicts it almost as a happy camping outing. Perhaps I am being too critical but, a subject as painful as child labor deserves a bit more somber a treatment. This is just my opinion.
Monica Kulling has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria. As this is an informational Picture storybook, it would be inappropriate to judge the book on accuracy as it is meant to convey only basic knowledge and is not based on primary accounts. However, given her prolific writing and background, plus my reading another more historical book on this subject, I can honestly say that it is not INaccurate. It is simply very sanitized or "white washed."

The book is extraordinarily accessible from the book flaps to the first page to the notes at the end about Mother Jones and especially the notes on child labor today. My only wish with this portion of the book is that I wished the narrative on child labor today had A: Cited its sources, B: Included the names of countries where the most child labor still occurs. It DOES do a great job of telling kids what they can do to help support the fight to end child labor.

The voice and style are okay for the age that this book is intended for.

Teachers: For very young students especially in affluent schools, this is a must use for introducing children to the history of Child Labor in America and to Mother Jones as a prominent Social Justice figure.

Students: Very young readers will enjoy the simple style of writing and the bright use of contrasting color in the pictures. ( )

This book's art is very cheerful, colorful, and pleasant to look at. Unfortunately, the nature of the story and the content of it do not really match with the tone of the book's artwork. I understand that this is an illustrated story book with a narrative structure and integrated art, but the weird thing about this story is that you read the words on its pages, look at the artwork, grow to understand the story it is telling, and then are confused as to why it is telling the story in this fashion. At least, that is what happened to me.
The story of Mary Harris Jones (aka Mother Jones) is the story of a woman who saw the physical strain, injury, and trauma of small children being forced to work in dangerous factory conditions as unacceptable. She organized a march with children who worked in these factories down to Oyster Bay, New York, where the summer home of then President Theodore Roosevelt was located. This was organized to raise awareness of the working conditions these children experienced on a daily basis and to protest for improved work conditions and laws banning young children from working. When you see and hear about the grizzly conditions of the factories, you can see why someone would get up in arms and protest.
Unfortunately, almost none of that is in this book. There is a brief mention of the working conditions and long hours children put in, but the majority of the book is a rather cheery, upbeat march from Philadelphia to New York (125 miles). Aside from the occasional mention of bad weather or that the protest ultimately, fails, none of the truly dark nature of the content is on display.
Perhaps they did this because either the writer or the artist wanted the tone of the story to match with the artwork. If that is true, then that mindset is actually worse because, regardless of how good the artwork is, I feel that it should always serve the story. Unfortunately, this version of events takes actual history and fictionalizes it to such an extent that it may as well be complete fantasy. The writer's voice is effective, speaking in the first person from the perspective of one of the children on the march, but the overall tone of the content contrasts so much with its presentation that the storytelling comes off as patronizing rather than sincere.
I know that I often struggle with authorial intent. I have been told that I often am missing the point as to what the author's goal was in constructing the story in a specific fashion. In this case, I do not really care what the author's intent was, this story just fails to be compelling. It drains all of the history out of the march by making it so charming and cheerful. If it was meant to simply be a charming and fun story for kids, why would you tell this story? This story is about the horrible conditions that children worked under and one brave woman's goal to undermine and correct these injustices. If you fail to explain that part of the story because you believe it is too graphic and horrifying for children, then you drain a lot of the emotional content of the events from your telling of the story.
I am currently reading another book that tells the story of Mother Jones and the Children's March, and I am fairly certain it will be better than this. ( )