The Triangle Factory Fire

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-A straightforward, factual treatment of a key event in the development of the American labor movement. By capturing readers' attention with an initial chapter vividly describing the enormous and deadly fire, then following it with a traditional chronological approach to preceding events, Sherrow bears out the series' intent to "highlight a vital moment in U.S. history, placing events against a backdrop of the people, places, and times that made them possible." She does a thorough job of presenting the facts, occasionally highlighting the text with primary-source quotations. She conveys the shocking conditions both at work and at home for the factory employees without sensationalizing, and traces the momentum of the emerging labor movement. Some black-and-white photographs bear out the information of the text graphically, although there are not enough to break up the "gray" appearance of the book's pages. Barbara Diamond Goldin's Fire! The Beginnings of the Labor Movement (Viking, 1992) is a good alternative for younger readers, portraying the tragedy through the eyes of the younger sister of one of the workers. Zachary Kent's The Story of the Triangle Factory Fire (Childrens, 1989) includes numerous photographs. Sherrow's title is an excellent source for student research.Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS