(3) K-3 Tales of the World series. Illustrated by Pascal Milelli. Eight-year-old Zulviya and the girls in her family spend their days weaving rugs, just like their mothers and grandmothers have always done. Impressionistic paintings in muted colors accompany Zulviya's lyrical description of her Afghan homeland and her yearning to escape "the shadow of the loom." An author's note provides details about illegal child labor in the Afghani rug-making industry.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth

(2) 4-6 This tale is about two children caught up in the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Jake labors in the textile mills, and Rosa goes to school while her mother and sister toil. Both Jake and Rosa are unwilling coattail participants in the labor action. The themes (e.g., children forced by circumstance to an unnatural self-reliance) are familiar--but nobody does them better.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2006