The Locket

August 1, 2008
Gr 4-6-Eleven-year-old Galena and her older sister, Anya, are Russian-Jewish immigrants living with their parents in a one-room tenement apartment in New York City. Six days a week the girls walk to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Each morning Galena asks to see the pictures of family members inside the gold locket Anya wears around her neck before she and her sister part to work on different floors. Low wages and poor working conditions cause Anya to consider joining a union, whereas Galena remains conflicted and loyal to her "Old World" mother, who forbids such activities. Galena resents the growing friendship and influence Dmitri, a young man working at a unionized factory, has with her sister. When fire breaks out at the Triangle and Anya dies, the pair must search for her body (identifiable by the locket). Galena comes to understand the fear behind her mother's resistance to change and chooses to attend a mass funeral and union meeting with Dmitri. Woven together in perfect compatibility, the historical background and fictional plot give readers a clear insight into Jewish immigrants and ritual (sitting shivah after a death in the family), and unfair labor practices, and there is excellent foreshadowing of the fire. Back matter includes a discussion of the disaster and archival photos."D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH"

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