SuitabookCounting on Grace
Elizabeth Winthrop
- Reading
- Consider reading together or checking in around the machinery and train incidents. The book also includes an author’s note about Hine and the photograph that inspired the story, which can extend discussion of its historical background.
- Themes
- Child labour and schooling: Grace and Arthur are taken from school to work in a mill; their teacher gives them Sunday lessons, and they write to the Child Labor Board. The story follows how mill work and lost schooling affect Grace and Arthur, who write to the Child Labor Board.
- A photograph as historical witness: Lewis Hine arrives to photograph and document children working in the mill; the story was inspired by one of his photographs. The novel connects a fictionalised story with Hine’s documentary work and includes author’s notes about the photographer and the image that inspired it.
- Worth knowing
- A boy deliberately puts his hand into machinery, losing two fingers; an old man is killed trying to board a moving train. These scenes may be disturbing, particularly for sensitive readers.