Uprising

They made a vow, “We will not be stupid girls. We will not be powerless girls. We will not be useless girls”

Three girls form an unlikely friendship a hundred years ago in New York City. Bella is a somewhat dreamy young immigrant who has come to America to find a job so that she may send money to her starving family in Italy. Yetta is also an immigrant working to support her family. She and her sister are saving money so that they can pay for the rest of their family to come from Russia. Yetta has other reasons for coming to America though. She believes that in America she does not have to be a powerless female. In America she feels she can make a difference. Jane has lived her entire life surrounded by opulence. She has always had more than Bella and Yetta could even dream of. But Jane grows increasingly unhappy with her place in the world. She begins to seek ways to do something about changing expectations for women and young girls.

The three girls are thrown together during the Shirtwaist Workers’ Strike. Bella and Yetta work at the factory and experience the horribly unhealthy and unfair working conditions first hand. Jane becomes involved in the strike when her suffragist friends take an interest in the Shirtwaist Workers’ plight. All three girls’ lives change drastically in a very short time, and they turn to each other for support. Little do they know that the biggest tragedy has yet to befall them, for the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire will take all but one of their lives.

Haddix begins this story from the perspective of Mrs. Livingston. The reader knows that she is either Bella, Yetta or Jane, but she is only referred by her married name. No clues are given as to which character she is, so the reader spends the entire story wondering which of the three girls will survive the fire in the factory. I consider myself a fairly intuitive reader, and I never had a clue which character Mrs. Livingston was. It was a brilliant move on Haddix’s part. The reader is not blindsided by the death of two main characters, but she is drawn immediately into the story, knowing the stakes are very high.

There were no cardboard characters in Uprising. All three of the girls were very well developed characters. Each character was very noble in one way, but each of them also had a major flaw. Yetta was so fixated on “the cause” that she sometimes forgot to be human. Bella was entirely too trusting and naïve. Jane was fighting against her upbringing, but a part of her was still that spoiled rich girl. All three girls grow and change, and that is something I particularly appreciate as a reader. Flawed characters are very easy to love. I found myself very invested in each girl, and I became increasingly distressed that two of them were going to die at the end of the story.

As expected, the end o f the book brought several tears. That in itself is a recommendation from me because it means that the story felt real. I stopped being an analytical reader and became immersed in the story. I was right there with those poor girls in that burning building, and it was both terrifying and heartbreaking. Kudos to Haddix for taking a lesser known historical event and making it feel current and relevant.

I recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction. If you also happen to be a fan of teen fiction this is the perfect book for you. It would be a wonderful book to integrate into a history class curriculum. Like great historical fiction always does, it brings the facts to life better than a history book ever could. New York in the early 1900’s comes alive, and even better than that is, Haddix makes sure you care about what happens.