Counting on Grace has been selected as a Community Read in states as diverse as Vermont, Indiana and North Carolina. Stories shared among all ages help to connect people who might otherwise be separated by age or geography or life circumstances. I love to think of the pairings that a discussion of Grace’s life in the mill might foster and I have been privileged to listen in on some of those conversations
Larissa Vigue, the program director of the 2007 VERMONT READS program says:
“Counting on Grace is not only a fine piece of literature to read and discuss; it holds great potential for extension activities. Subjects and themes rich for research and art projects, lectures, panel discussions, dramatic interpretation, field trips, and the like include Vermont mill history and the history of child labor, French Canadian culture, family relationships, poverty, the value of education, and especially, the power of old photographs to tell stories. Thanks to Lewis Hine’s eagle eye, and Elizabeth Winthrop’s passion and imagination, this one photograph has been – and will continue to be – worth many thousands of words.”
Lewis Hine traveled all over New England photographing children in mills. If you live near North Pownal, Vermont, please download this map and come visit the setting that inspired my story.
Downloads and links for teaching COUNTING ON GRACE to all ages and across all disciplines:
Teaching Elementary Students about the Industrial Revolution
The Mill Children Teacher’s Guide
Indiana Counting on Grace Guide
Massachusetts Counting on Grace Discussion Guide
Searching For Addie: The Story Behind a Famous Photograph
Here I am at the mill site with a class of Sixth Graders from the Long Trail School who travelled down from Dorset, Vermont to see the setting that inspired COUNTING ON GRACE.
If you are a teacher interested in bringing the story of Grace to your classroom, you can download a comprehensive Curriculum Links Guide for teaching COUNTING ON GRACE to all ages and across all disciplines.
Teachers, come visit my new teacher’s page to learn more about how to teach many of my books in the classroom.
Visit my friend and fellow writer Joe Manning’s website. (www.morningsonmaplestreet.com) Read how he helped me find Addie Card. Follow his search for the descendants of more children from Lewis Hine photographs.
ON CHILD LABOR
https://www.loc.gov/item/2018675329/
Addie Card in the Library of Congress collection.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor
This website features the original captions written by Lewis Hine for his photographs.
http://www.stopchildlabor.org/
A website which helps children in your school get involved in working to eradicate child labor around the world. Includes many resources for the classroom. You can also read a NPR Marketplace report on child labor in other countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor
Includes much information on the history and economics of child labor.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc004894.jpg
You can see here one of Hine’s original reports on child labor in the Mississippi Cotton Mills in April and May 1911.
http://LewisHineNHD.weebly.com
An informative website put together by a high school student for her submission for the Nation History Day Project.She was inspired to research Hine and child labor because she read COUNTING ON GRACE.
ABOUT LEWIS HINE
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004001725/PP/?sid=56c57e060d9a35378e8da40d2fe9d04d
The photographs that inspired COUNTING ON GRACE.
https://www.biography.com/artist/lewis-hine
A biography of Lewis Hine.
https://www.history.com/news/child-labor-lewis-hine-photos
Further information on Hine including links to child labor, The National Child Labor Committee and documentary photography.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/photographs-concerning-labor-housing-and-social-conditions-in-the-united-states#/?tab=about
The New York Public Library’s Hine collection.
https://www.nhhistory.org/Object?id=8680cc31-7a78-4ac6-9244-d26dbc94a2f1
Hine’s pictures taken in neighboring New Hampshire.
https://time.com/3805208/tracking-down-lewis-hines-forgotten-child-laborers/
The story of Joe Manning, the researcher who helped me find Addie Card.
