Public Employee Press

Book review
Labor books and videos for children

Henry Garrido has talked about the challenges before the labor movement, including the need to educate today's youth about their labor heritage.

The DC 37 Ed Fund Library has numerous labor books and videos many written especially for teens. I want here to begin at the beginning by focusing on picture books to start working class children off right.

"Joe Van der Katt and the Great Picket Fence" by Peter Welling is set in the town of Litterbox in New York's Catskill Mountains. The fat cats have all the money until the poor cats get organized and demand fair pay and better working conditions.

Next, in "Click, Clack, Moo," the cows learn to type and demand better working conditions by going on strike. And in "The Last Stop on Market Street," by Mataat de la Peña, poor children wonder why they don't have the things that children on the other side of town enjoy. Ali Bustamante explores property and labor rights in "Manny and the Mango Tree," a story about children who water and care for trees but cannot enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Going back in time, Don Brown's "Kid Blink Beats the World" retells the David vs. Goliath story. The real life story featured in the film "Newsies," of thousands of newsboys who went on strike when the World Newspaper lowered their pay. And in "Bobbin Girl," Arnold McCully tells the story of the 1830 Lowell Mill Strike by thousands of young girls and the conditions they revolted against.

To bring the struggle up to date is "Si Se Puede, Yes We Can," a real life bilingual story of the Janitors on strike In Los Angeles. The strike lifted thousands of workers out of poverty. Finally, there is Frances Ruffin's "Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom."

Picture books are great for readers of all ages and these are some of my favorites. But there are more on labor and other political issues in the library, as well as books and films for older children and adults.

— Ken Nash,
DC 37 Education Fund Library, Room 211,
www.dc37library.org