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For Students
For Teachers Books
Films Organizations / Agencies Child Labor Curricula from other sources: Student Readings A Day's Work, by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ronald Himler. The story of a Mexican-American boy who helps find work for his grandfather, newly arrived from Mexico. Ages 4-8. Clarion Books. ISBN 0-395-84518-1. $6.95 Amelia’s Road, by Linda Jacobs Altman. Amelia hates roads. Roads take her to fields where her family labors, to schools where no one knows her name, and to unfamiliar cabins where she must live. Still, Amelia finds a way to create a home for herself. Ages 3-10. Lee & Low Books. ISBN 1-880-00027x. Available in Spanish. $6.95 paper, $16.95 cloth. The Bakery Lady/La Senora de la Panaderia, by Pat Mora. In this story about how families help each other and how they help the youngest members grow into confident and productive adults, a girl becomes a full fledged ‘bakery lady” in her grandparents’ bakery. Bilingual. Pinata Books, $14.95. 1 800 452-8382 Calling the Doves/El Canto de Las Palomas, by Juan Felipe Herrera, ill. Elly Simmons. A prominent Mexican-American poet recalls his childhood as a migrant farm worker, painting a picture of his loving family life on the road, with his mother reciting poetry and his father calling the doves. Ages 4-8. Children’s Book Press, SF, 1995 ISBN 0-892-39166-9. $7.95. Bilingual. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, by Francisco Jimenez, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1997. (upper elem. and up) Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin, ill. Betsy Lewin. 30 pp, 2000, paper, Simon and Schuster Books, NY, 2000. Early elementary. The farmer refuses to negotiate with the cows, who are cold at night and want blankets. $15.95 picture book Curious George Takes a Job, by H.A. Rey. Early elementary, but also useful in showing how jobs have changed over the past fifty years to older students. ISBN 0590758071. 47 pages, 1947, Houghton-Mifflin Company. $5.95. Fire!: The Beginnings of the Labor Movement, by Barbara Diamond Goldin. A fictionalized account of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire which can be read and understood easily by third graders. $4.95. ISBN 0-140-34685-6. Puffin Books. First Day in Grapes, by L. King Perez, ill. Robert Casilla. A migrant worker’s son changes schools depending on the harvest. He is going to grape school now and hopes to stay long enough to go to raisin school so that he can enter the math contest. Through these often difficult situations, he learns to carry himself with dignity and grace. Lee & Low, NY 2002 $16.95. 1800 452-8382. Giggle, Giggle, Quack, by Doreen Cronin, Pictures by Betsy Lewin. Farmer Brown is going on vacation and asks his brother of take care of the animals. “But keep an eye on Duck,” he says. “He’s trouble.” Simon & Schuster. Ages 4 and up Harvest, by George Ancona. A book of pictures and words about the many kinds of harvests migrant farm workers experience: the commercial harvest of fruits and vegetable; the human harvest of pain, disease, and exhaustion; the struggle for decent working conditions, and the hope of harvest for a better life for the children. 2001. Marshall Cavendish. $15.95. 1800 452-8382. Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, by Kathleen Krull. ill. Yuyi Morales, Harcourt, Inc. San Diego, 2003. (upper elem. and up) Picture book. I, Tomato, by Bill Morgan. A booklet chronicling the life of a tomato—from the point of view of the tomato with an emphasis on its interactions with workers who nurture it from inception to your table. Gives children a sense of the work that goes into food production and distribution. 28 pages. For fourth graders. $3, in English/Spanish. California Federation of Teachers, One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440, Oakland CA 94612. (510) 832-8812. http://www.cft.org/about/comm/labor. Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, By Dennis Brindell. $18. Available at http://unionshop.aflcio.org. La Causa: The Migrant Farmworkers' Story, by Dana Catharine de Ruiz and Richard Larion. This book can be read to kids, or older ones might read it themselves. $7.20. 1993, Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers. Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson, the author of Bridge to Terabithia, tells the story of a child laborer in the fabric mills in Massachusetts in the 1800s. The book goes into great detail about working conditions in factories of the time, and the living conditions of the workers, without being preachy. ISBN 0-140-37389-6. $6.99. 192 pages, Puffin. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Lee Burton. Mike Mulligan remains faithful to his steam shovel, Mary Anne, against the threat of newer technology. Houghton Mifflin Company. Also available in Spanish. ISBN 0-395-25939-8. $5.95. Mommies at Work, by Eve Merriam, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes. A small child's introduction to the types of work mommies can do. Kindergarten/first grade. ISBN 0-689-00999-9. 32 pages, paperback, Simon and Schuster. $5.20. No Star Nights, by Anna Egan Smucker. A young girl growing up in a steeltown, set in the 1950's. Alfred A. Knopf Publishing. ISBN 0-395-39033-8. Paper. 32 pages, $7.99 Our Community at Work Coloring Book, by Marilyn Anderson. $1.20. Available at http://unionshop.aflcio.org. !Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!, by Diana Cohn, $15.95, Available at http://unionshop.aflcio.org. The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss. Don't let them divide you, is the message of this young children's classic. Other Seuss books, like The Lorax, can also be useful in conveying labor-related topics simply to younger students. $14.95. Swimmy by Leo Lionni. The story of a black fish, the lone survivor of an attack on a group of red fish, who saves his new companions. Alfred A. Knop Publishing, 1963. ISBN 0-394-82620-5, 32 pages, $2.98 paper. Trouble in the Hen House: A Puppet Show, by Phyllis Chiu, CFT Labor in the Schools Committee, a flexible elementary curriculum based on a play/puppet show. The play is about hens organizing against a mean farmer. It can be read as a story to K-1 students; grades 2-3 children can stage the puppet show; and for grades 4-5, it can be used in a ‘readers theater’ format or students can stage the play for a younger group. In each case, students make the puppets themselves and learn about the potential for power in collective action. 20 pages. $3. California Federation of Teachers, One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440, Oakland CA 94612, (510) 832-8812. http://www.cft.org/about/comm/labor/ Voices From the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories, by S. Beth Atkin (Little Brown 1993). Photos and first person accounts from farmworkers' children, ages 9-13. $13.99. ISBN 0-316-05633-2. Working Cotton, by Sherley Anne Williams. Beautifully illustrated (by Carole Byard), this story is based in the memories of an African American woman of her childhood in the cotton fields of California's central valley. ISBN 0-152-99624-9. $7.00. 32 pages, 1992, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, San Diego. Esperanza Rising, by Pan Munox Ryan. 2000. In this novel, Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. Scholastic Press. $5.99 Available in Spanish. Missing From Haymarket Square, by Harriette Gillem Robinet. A superb novella tracing daily life for immigrant and African American workers in industrial Chicago, seen through the eyes of their pre-adolescent children. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon and Schuster, 2001, New York, 100 pages, illus. $16. Strike! The Bitter Struggle of American Workers from Colonial Times to the Present, by Penny Colman, Millbrook Press, 1995, Brookfield, CT, 90 pages, illus. $4.75 used. And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, by Tomas Rivera. A novel about one Mexican-American family’s life as migrant workers during the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of a young boy struggling to come of age in adverse circumstances. Arte Publico, 1987. $15. Bilingual Barrio Boy, by Ernesto Galaraza, University of Notre Dame Press, 1971. $3.85 Bread—And Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865-1915, by Milton Meltzer. Secondary, 232 pages, 1967, paper. Alfred A. Knopf, $8.50 California Worker's Rights, by Kirsten Snow Spalding, Third Edition, 2001. A basic overview of the legal protections for workers under California and federal law, written in understandable language, designed for use by workers and those who represent them. An excellent text book for high school or college courses. Center for Labor Research and Education, UC Berkeley. http:// laborcenter.berkeley.edu. Click on Publications. (510) 642-0323. $15 California Women Union Leaders, by Marjorie Stern , published by AFT Women's Rights Committee. Single copy is free. Contact CFT, One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440, Oakland, CA 94612, (510) 832-8812 Gathering the Sun, by Alma Flor Ada. 1997. Using the template of a poem for each letter of the Spanish alphabet, readers are taken into the fields and orchards where people work and into the lives of the people who work them. Stunning sun-drenched paintings illustrate each poem. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard. $6.99 Bilingual. Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer & Herbert M. Morais. 1955. The adventure story of the battles, betrayals and victories of American working men and women. Extensively researched, yet highly readable, history of the U.S. labor movement from the Civil War through the Eisenhower Administration. Also available in Spanish. To order call United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. (412) 471-8919. $5.40 Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II, by Penny Colman, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1995, New York, 120 pages, illus. $10.99 This Land Was Made For You And Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie, by Elizabeth Partridge. Biography of Woody Guthrie. Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. Voices for Justice: Asian Pacific American Organizers and the New Labor Movement, by Kent Wong and Ruth Milkman. 2001, 112 pages. UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, Box 951478, L.A., CA 90095-1478. (310) 794-5981. Five immigrant worker organizers and their stories in their own words. $10. With These Hands, by Daniel Rothenberg. 2000. Through the personal stories of migrant farm workers, readers get a very real picture of how farming is practiced and who is most affected by these practices. University of California. $8.95. Teacher Readings America at Work, the official national AFL-CIO monthly, surveys the labor scene with short articles and longer features. Subscribe 1 800-442-5645 or visit http://www.aflcio.org at the online store. In These Times, includes good labor coverage from a sympathetic point of view. http://www.inthesetimes.com. $24.95/year. Labor History, written for the more scholarly-inclined teacher are available from your local university library or http://www.oah.org, 812 855-9851. Subscription price is based on income. Labor Notes, is a monthly newsletter on the current labor movement scene. $20/year, available from Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, MI 48210. http://www.labornotes.org. $24/year. Labor Studies Journal, United Association of Labor Education, http://www.uale.org. $120/year. Labor’s Heritage, a well-written and beautifully illustrated quarterly, featuring labor history articles. Available for $24 for 4 issues, from Labor's Heritage, George Meany Memorial Archives, 10,000 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20903. 301 431-5451. http://www.georgemeany.org. The Nation, magazine with good labor coverage. http://www.thenation.com. $18/year. On the Move, put out by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education (510) 642-0323 and the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education publishes Labor Education News (see section IX). BOOKS The Lexicon of Labor, by Emmet Murray and Thomas Murray Geoghegan. In its own category as a desk reference. New Press, NY, 1998. $10.50 used. General Labor History California Women Multicultural Texts African-American Workers Asian-American and Pacific Island Workers Globalization No Sweat – The Comic. In 2001, in Puebla, central Mexico, hundreds of sweatshop workers took on the local police, judges, bosses and big corporations in a fight for dignity at work and an independent union. They won. $4.25. http://www.labourstart.org/docs/en/000018.html. Latino Workers Also see the Chicana/o Studies Book and Materials Catalog, from Arroyo Books, specialists in bilingual and Spanish language books and materials, at 125 S. Avenue 57, Los Angeles, CA 90042-4701, for a number of books with Latino labor-related content at various grade levels as well as for adults. Gay and Lesbian Workers Labor Fiction Arnow, Harriette, The Dollmaker, 1954 American Dream (1990) Directed by Barbara Kopple. About the long, painful strike at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minn., speaks directly to the era of downsizing, and the waning power and focus of labor unions. Bread and Roses (2000) Set inside a fictional SEIU Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles, Bread and Roses tells a moving story about Mexican immigrants seeking a better life in the United States who are exploited as cheap labor, “invisible” office cleaners. Director: Ken Loach. 110 minutes. Grapes of Wrath (1940) Directed by John Ford. The migration of the Joad family to California from their dust-bowl farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. 100 min. Harlan County USA (1976) Directed by Barbara Kopple. An Academy Award winner, it chronicles the heroic fight of 190 coal mining families for dignity and fairness in Harlan County, Kentucky. Hoffa (1992) A mostly anti-union drama about the rise of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, played by Jack Nicholson, with Danny DeVito directing. The Killing Floor (1985) This story tells of events that led to the Chicago race riots of 1919. A young black sharecropper leaves the South during World War I and becomes a laborer in the Chicago stockyards and attempts to form an interracial industrial union in the face of growing conflict. 118 min. Matewan (1987) A drama about the violent coal miners’ strike in 1920 West Virginia, directed by John Sayles. Molly Maguires (1970) A brilliant drama of Irish immigrant coal miners in 1876 Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, directed by Martin Ritt, starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris. Norma Rae (1979) A drama based on the real-life story of textile union activist Crystal Lee Sutton in her fight against the J.P. Stevens Co. in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, directed by Martin Ritt and starring Sally Field. On the Waterfront (1954) A drama about the investigation by the New York Crime Commission of dock worker union corruption in New York in the 1940s. The Pajama Game (1957) Directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen. Labor and management at the Sleeptite Pajama Factory aren’t getting much sleep lately: a proposed 7 1/2 cent hourly wage increase is the reason—and a job action just may be the result. 102 min. Salt of the Earth (1954) Directed by Herbert J. Biberman. Produced by blacklisted Hollywood talent during the Cold War. A moving depiction of the year-long struggle by Mexican-American zinc miners in New Mexico. When an injunction is issued against the workers, the wives take up the battle with a fury, leaving the husbands to care for home and children. 94 min. www.pioneer-ent.com. $24.98. Strike (Stachka) (1924) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Strike is a celebration of the unrealized 1905 Bolshevik revolution. The story is set in motion by a series of outrages and humiliations perpetrated on the workers of a metalworks plant. 80 min., silent. Organizations/Agencies Government Agencies
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