I’ve been distracted. Hurricane Sandy – terrible name, but then,
is there ever a good one – knocked out our electricity, hot water, and heat. Then the
election raised our blood pressures and anxieties. Trolley cars grew in my stomach,
turning round and round. [That’s a Yiddish curse my paternal grandmother used
to say.] Though our neighborhood was lucky compared to others in New York and
New Jersey, it was a difficult time to concentrate on writing. We were lucky too, our Maple tree tipped over but is otherwise intact.
During this period I had a front row
seat observing neighbors and strangers at their most noble. People shared food,
batteries, hugs, and information. Whoever was going somewhere bright offered to bring
back goods to those in darkness.
Real people who help others is a
leitmotif in many of our books. We ask the questions, “When faced with adversity
does one rise up or fall down? What does a person have to do to live a noble life?” This theme is not only an important one for kids, but it is usually implanted
inside a damn good story.
“Noble,” stayed with me throughout the
hurricane and election. I asked myself which nonfiction stories for kids
include the search for virtue? I called my friend and YA librarian
Karlan Sick to brainstorm titles because Karlan remembers every book that has
ever been written. She talked about
the obvious greats who made a difference in society: FDR, Eleanor, Jane
Addams, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr. But these were not the first people she came up with. Her first title happened to be one of my all-time favorites: Russell Freedman’s Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor.
The book is about the
dazzling photographer Louis Hine, and how his photographs changed the way
people think about working children.
In the early twentieth century Hine, who was a photographer, sociologist, and a New
York City schoolteacher, documented working children on behalf of the National
Child Labor Committee. His powerful, heart-wrenching photographs helped to
awaken America’s conscience and later contributed to social reform with much needed
labor laws. Unfortunately Hine never knew what an impact he made. Museums had
no interest in his photographs; he survived on welfare, and died penniless.
Frankly, I cannot understand why he is not on EVERY list of great
photographers. If you click on his name you will see more images, many of which
are very well known.
Russell Freedman is
a superb writer and a wonderful colleague. His impeccably researched books sure influenced me. I
particularly love the way he includes old photographs as both documents and
art. When I set out to write a modern version of working children, Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery, he graciously introduced me to the director of the National Child
Labor Committee, who gave me access to their files and Hine’s photographs. What
a day that was, going through some of Hine’s original prints. [Sadly, Iqbal is out of print.]
Iqbal Masih’s story along with the
“crusaders” who helped free him from his thekedar
at the carpet factory in Pakistan where he worked from age four to ten, is
eerily similar to Freedman’s American kids: Exploitation supported by unknowing
shoppers. Economics skewed to favor the rich. Danger to those who try to bring
about change. Sound familiar? Half a world away … half a century away … things
haven’t changed for many. No wonder our subtitles are so similar – I just this moment
realized that.
Louis Hine was
noble. Iqbal Masih was noble. And so were crusaders who risked so much to
speak out for what is right. What have you written, or read, that inspired you
to write about someone noble? Can we make a list?
