Product Details
Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: Tribute Books; 1 edition (November 24, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 098146193X
ISBN-13: 978-0981461939
Product Description from Amazon.com
"Coming of age amidst the seething unrest of the Civil War era, feisty fourteen-year-old Katie McCafferty infiltrates the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish organization, to rescue a lifelong friend. Under the guise of Dominick, a draft resister, Katie volunteers for a dangerous mission in hopes of preventing bloodshed. Katie risks job, family, and ultimately her very life to intervene. A series of tragedies challenge Katie's strength and ingenuity, and she faces a crisis of conscience. Can she balance her sense of justice with the law? Call Me Kate is suitable for readers from eleven to adult. The story is dramatic and adventuresome, yet expressive of daily life in the patches of the hard coal region during the Civil War era. This novel will appeal to readers of the Dear America series, as well as more mature readers who will enjoy the story's rich context and drama."
My Thoughts
This is a story that takes place during the Civil War and is about the coal workers in Pennsylvania, majority of them Irish. The life of a coal miner is dirty, hard and dangerous work. The families of coal miners dread to hear the alarms going as this means that their husbands, fathers,and brothers could be injured or dead. The mines are very dangerous to work in and the owners refuse to make things safer for the workers.
Since there is a war going on, there is also draft going on. A lot of these men do not want ot fight in this war and there is an organization called the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish society that is determined to help those drafted into the Army by unsavory methods. The main character of the story is Catharine "Katie" McCafferty, a 14 year old girl who faces tragedies, along with her family and neighbors when some miners are injured and killed in a mine explosion. Among those injured is Katie's father. After he dies Katie gets a job to help the family make ends meet. This job is temporary and when the job is over Katie obtains another position in the household of a mine owner, Pardee, as live in help. The mine owners are involved in sending their Irish workers to be drafted willing or not. A man could send a substitute for $300 but most of these families can not afford to do this.The Molly Maguires are involved in a plot to blow up the tracks that will carry the train that has the draftees on it. Katie, along with the Pardee's stable boy, Patrick, want to try and stop this plot. She disguises herself as 'Dominic" so she and Patrick infiltrate this organization and go to meetings in order to learn details of the plot. Katie is worried about a friend who has gotten himself involved with this plot and wants to make sure he is safe.
This is an interesting story about a period of American history that includes the Irish immigrants. As I am of Irish descent I found this story informative as I did not know a lot about that era, the mines and the Irish families who struggled to survive in this period of strife. I received this galley from Nicole at Tribute Books for review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review.
To read more about this book and listen to an interview of author Molly Roe you can go to the Tribute Books Blog.
Kathleen - thank you for your review - it is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI second your comment: "As I am of Irish descent I found this story informative as I did not know a lot about that era" - we hear that all the time from readers, so I'm glad to hear that Molly's book provides an eye-opening experience.
I'm an elementary school teacher and also of Irish descent. My family has a coal mining background. So I was prepared to like and appreciate a book like "Call Me Kate." From the moment I opened it though, it was downhill. I found it so disappointing I had a hard time finishing it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just that it's poorly written written with characters that are flat and undeveloped. For me the real problem is in the way the Irish coal miners are portrayed as radical and dangerous hooligans and murderers.
All of us who grew up in the area where the supposed Molly Maguires operated in Pennsylvania have heard many stories. And the truth has been out there a long time. The coal miners were wrongly accused of crimes and killed over and over to break the unions. Anyone who's still writing stories like "Call Me Kate" about the "dangerous miners" " hasn't done their homework very well. It's just more anti-union tripe rehashed for kids--and that's really sad.
I found several novels on the the United Mine Workers Union bestsellers list that I'd recommend to anyone interested in the history that "Call Me Kate" claims to cover. One is "Mine Seed" by Lucia Dailey, a beautifully written novel based on solid research, with a bibliography.
Another book on the UMW list I'd also recommend is "The Bright and Shining Sun" by James Lee Burke. It's a vivid tale of coal miners in the Cumberland mountains of Kentucky.
I appreciate your opinion j, like I said in my review, I did not know anything about the coal miners, unions and the strife and hardships that the miners and their families endured.. I will take a look at the books you recommended. I am not a writer nor reseacher so to know whether a book is historically accurate is not a decision I can make.. Thank you for postingon my blog.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. Thanks for your blog.
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