Matas's (The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War) slim story launches a trilogy projected to span 1909 and 1910 as its protagonists travel from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles. As this installment opens, 11-year-old Rosie Lepidus plays on the streets of Lower Manhattan, where her family has lived since emigrating from Odessa six years earlier. But her carefree life comes to an abrupt halt when her father, an aspiring actor, uses his savings to invest in a nickelodeon venture and her mother, a factory worker and champion of women's suffrage and union causes, falls ill. Rosie quits school and—passing for 16—takes her mother's place behind a sewing machine at a shirtwaist factory. Working conditions are oppressive, and the heartless boss fines the workers for singing and stretching and also sets the clock ahead to shorten the lunch break. Angered, Rosie joins her fellow workers supporting a general strike, takes her place on the picket line and is arrested after standing up to a "hired gorilla" who is protecting the scabs. Matas's setting has a strong historical basis, yet her narrative stretches credibility as preadolescent Rosie becomes the mouthpiece of the ultimately victorious local union movement. The clichéed dialogue and overly tidy resolution may discourage readers from following Rosie on her journey westward. Ages 9-12. (June)
