Growing Up in Coal Country
At the sound of the breaker bell, men and boys in Pennsylvania coal country rose out of bed to begin their day down in
the depths of the mine. Boys as young as five could be found working in some capacity, though by law the boys had to
be at least twelve. (Since there were no official birth registrations, people declared their children to be the appropriate
age to work.) Growing Up in Coal Country provides a thoroughly researched account of life in coal country, mixing
details with first hand accounts.
Each chapter of this book is preceded by quotes from personal accounts of people working in the mines and living in mining
country. Readers learn that the young boys primarily worked as "breaker boys," whose job it was to separate the coal
from the rock, slate and other debris. They were not allowed to wear gloves because it was said to affect their dexterity.
The hands of they young boys would swell red with infection before their skin toughened enough to handle the demands of their
job. A photograph included in the book depicts the boys sitting on wooden slats, using their feet to stop the coal as
they separated it. Anecdotes included throughout the book make the people of this time come to life. The young
breaker boys, for example, would often throw pieces of slate or board at the machinery (when the boss's back was turned),
allowing them to run wild and play games while the machine was fixed.
Black and white photographs are plentiful, each with a black border around the edges. The photographs compliment
the text, often showing exactly what the text has detailed. The faces of the people, particularly the children, are
the most capitivating - such young faces caked with soot and ash after a day of hard labor. There still seems to be
life in their eyes, however, and as this book shows, the people of this time adapted to their hard lives and continued to
live with as much "life" as they could.
This book gives children (and adults) the opporunity to identify with the life of families during this time. The
personal accounts and quotations within the text make the information seem immediate and personal. The lives of mine
workers included daily risks - particularly for their lives. At any moment an accident could occur in the mines, wiping
out whoever was in its way. According to Deifendeifer, "Bartoletti's accessible writing style, as well as the abundance
of stimulating information, makes for an engrossing historical account" (1997).
As Bartoletti says in the conclusion of the book, the legacy of coal country are the stories of its people. A
Coal Miner's Bride, also by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, would make an excellent pair with this nonfiction book. It
gives a fictional account of a young immigrant named Anetka Kaminska who was sent from Poland to America to be the fourteen
year old bride of a coal miner with three young daughters. Many facts from Growing Up in Coal Country are included
in A Coal Miner's Bride, making it a reliable first hand account, though it is a work of fiction.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Growing Up in Coal Country. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
ISBN 0395778476.
