Product Description

Lowell, Massachusetts, February 1834

Mrs. Gird is still asking me to spy on the girls for her. I don't want to do it....I don't think I can refuse to try.

Grandmamma has died and Zellie has no other family. She desperately needs her job with mean-spirited Mrs. Gird, who runs a boardinghouse for the girls who work at the textile mills. When Mrs. Gird tells Zellie to eavesdrop and report what she hears, Zellie is surprised. The girls' conversations seem ordinary to her.

Then Zellie finds a puzzling list in one of the girls' rooms. A hidden note and whispers in the dark add to the mystery, until a budding friendship leads Zellie to a secret meeting where things become clear. She doesn't want to betray the girls, but if she doesn't, she could find herself jobless and homeless. Will Zellie risk everything to stand up for what she believes?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #892412 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 133 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Zellie, orphaned and homeless, goes to Lowell to seek work. Unable to get a job in one of the mills because she is African American, she finds work as a domestic at one of the boarding houses for the mill girls. The book opens and closes with short entries from her diary, and in between chronicles her crisis of conscience. Mrs. Gird has asked Zellie to spy on the boarders, as they are preparing to walk off the job in an attempt to stop a threatened reduction in their wages. Zellie's sympathies are with the girls, but she desperately needs her job, and has no references that would help her find work elsewhere. Remembering the things she has learned from her grandmother, she finds her own way through the conflicting sides to a safe haven and a real home. Descriptions of daily life and chores and of the newly industrialized city of Lowell provide a sense of time and place without overwhelming readers. The plot moves along briskly, and the coincidences that occasionally drive it are believable. Zellie is a 12-year-old with spirit and intelligence, and though there is little development of other characters, the people she interacts with are more than stereotypes. Entertaining historical fiction.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Franklin Public Library, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The town swallows the orphan black girl whole
There are sinister forces at work in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts
in 1834. Mrs. Gird hires the orphaned Zellie to do housework and other chores, but to also spy on the girls in the boardinghouse. Since Mrs. Gird is a bigoted pinch-penny slave driver, her plans for finding out about the walk out planned by Lynda fail. The mill owners are working all the girls harder at the same wage as before and now, want to reduce that wage as well.
Nearly a hundred years before the emancipation of women things are changing in Massachusetts. One of the ring leaders is the dress maker old Miss O'Brien who is the opposite of Mrs. Gird.
Zellie finds a home as her apprentice and is swallowed up by the big city...