An account of work and childhood chronicles the horrific circumstances in which children labored and lived in the coal mining towns of northeastern Pennsylvania during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Stimulated by hearing the personal stories of her husband's grandparents, the author began to record many oral histories. She read old mining records, visited museums and studied old photographs. She reports how women and children worked at home, how children's schooling and health suffered, and how the cycle was repeated from generation to generation. Bartoletti's masterfully developed narrative allows her human subjects to speak for themselves. The varied array of memorable black-and-white photos documents their experience. (Ages 9-16)