Counting on Grace, Elizabeth Winthrop
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.60
Club: $8.75

Counting on Grace

Narrator: Lili Gamache

Unabridged: 5 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/27/2007


Synopsis

BONUS FEATURES: Exclusive author interview and a profile of Lewis Hine!

1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Lisa the Librarian on 2007-12-19 13:52:07

I can't help but feel the author should have written about the boy character rather than the girl. The narrative doesn't quite work. She's smart enough, but not truly dedicated to learning. Yet she becomes the temporary teacher at the end. The author is trying to save her protagonist, but at the expense of the story. The music starting a few chapters overwhelms the narrator's voice they didn't seem to have good sound control.