Kids at Work

Freedman, R. (1994). Kids at work: Lewis Hine and the crusade against child labor.
     New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Genre: Informational
Age Level: 10 and up

Summary:  Kids at Work is an informational text in the form of a photo essay.  The focus of this text is the incredible pictures taken by Lewis Hine.  No one before him had captured such vivid pictures of children working in factories, cotton fields, coal mines, etc.  These children were doing the work of adults and barely being paid. 
     Child labor was a cheap way to increase production, no matter what the job opportunity was.  Lewis Hine did not agree with the use of child labor and set out on a mission to prove to others that this needed to be stopped.  Children were losing their lives to these jobs and he could no longer ignore this fact.  So, he went all across the country taking pictures of children as they were working.  The author, Russell Freedman, compiled these pictures into this book so that others could see what was actually happening during this time period.
     This book is written very clearly.  The author made sure to stick to the point and focus on the fact that children were doing the work of adults.  The information was presented in a way that was known to unknown.  Most people knew that some children had to work, but no one really knew to the extent that child laborers were being used.  Kids at Work shows how children were being mistreated and abused as they were working these jobs.  The photographs prove that child labor was a fact.  There was no opinion that this was happening, but fact in the proof of the photographs.

Reflection:  To be honest, when I first borrowed this book from a fellow teacher, I did not think that I would want to read it at all.  However, once I started the book, I wanted to finish it.  I had heard many times of how children had to work, even from my own parents.  I didn't realize that there was so much use of children as laborers in our country, nor how harshly they were treated.  I was truly saddened by what I read and saw in the pictures of this book.
     I think this would be a good book to share with students in the classroom.  I know that some of them would have a tough time grasping how different the lives of the children in the pictures was from their own lives.  However, I think it would be good for them to realize how much better they have it than those children did.  We live in a "me" society and students need to realize that it isn't always about them.  I think that I could incorporate this book into character education activities and possibly Social Studies as well.