Horrors of History

March 1, 2015
A fictional account of a real, deadly day. In 1914, when coal miners in several Colorado communities went on strike for more pay and better working conditions, they and their families were forced out of company-owned housing. They set up tent camps and continued to strike. Tempers flared among the miners, scab workers, and coal company officials; eventually, the National Guard set up militia nearby. On April 21, miners and militia fought a deadly battle whose origin is unclear; by the end of the day, 20 people had been killed, including two women and 11 children who suffocated in the cellar where they sought refuge. Anderson's latest in his Horrors of History series begins with this grisly sight and then flashes back two days with his imagined story of how it came to be. The narrative comes at readers from all angles, with no clear main character or point of view but with far too many characters for easy comprehension. The background of the strike is hard to understand, the topography of the attack murky, and the violence inexplicable. Anderson seems to revel in gory details, as when a 10-year-old boy is shot: "A bullet had torn off a large chunk of Frank's skull and brain."This novel neither elucidates nor entertains; it's hard to see a reason for it. (Historical fiction. 12-16)

May 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Anderson, author of several titles in the "Horrors of History" series, brings another tragedy to light. The author novelizes the true massacere at Ludlow, a camp of striking coal miners in Colorado. It is Easter season, 1914, and the miners, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, and the Colorado National Guard, are at a standstill. The strikers find they prefer their tent life to the difficulties of living in the company town, and the company and the National Guard have grown weary of the confrontation. A company wife sends a letter to the Guard, suggesting that the miners have kidnapped her husband because he refused to strike with them. The Guard takes this as an excuse to raid the camp, and after days of fruitless conversation, gunfire rains down. Families flee and hide. Men try to stand and fight. Lives are lost, and justice seems far away. The massacre is a true tragedy that may interest those who read historical fiction, but middle school students will need more context about what it meant to be a "company man" and a miner in order to understand the strike and to even begin to comprehend the shoot-out. VERDICT The plethora of back matter and other nonfiction elements make this novel a good fit for classroom literature circles or as part of a library booklist or display about mining life.-Sarah Knutson, American Canyon Middle School, CA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
Grades 6-8 More than one hundred years ago, on April 20, 1914, a violent labor struggle erupted at the Ludlow, Colorado, coal mine. Earlier, after Greek immigrant miners struck Colorado Fuel & Iron Company for better working conditions and higher wages, they and their families were evicted from company housing. Now, on Easter Sunday, the Colorado National Guard militia is itching for a fight, as are some of the miners. It's almost dark when shots ring out over the tent city. With panic running rampant and children screaming everywhere, chaos reigns. Some wives and children head to perceived safety, while others hunker down in dirt cellars. Events of the day move along in fairly short snippets, following particular individuals or families. It's almost as if readers are watching movie shorts yet are conscious of all the action. This fictional account of an actual event is written in a gripping narrative style and accompanied by archival black-and-white photographs. The epilogue and author's note give facts, figures, and sources for this intriguing title in the Horrors of History series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)