Brave Girl by Michelle Markel

This is a well written picture book biography of a woman named Clara Lemlich.  She immigrated to the United States as a teen, and soon started work in a garment factory.  She was appalled by the working conditions of the girls, so she joined those trying to establish a labor union for garment factory workers. The book emphasizes the fact that Clara was young (not yet 20 but the book never gives her age), small ( just 5 feet tall) and spoke almost no English.  Despite these limitations, Clara became the voice of the factory girls rights movement.  Markel's text is simple and the can be read in 10 minutes or less. The book is illustrated with watercolor and ink pictures that do a good job of suggesting the time period and the conditions in the factories. There is quite a good video version of the book done by Dreamscape and available on Overdrive that would be great to show to a class who were studying the time period.  (2013)