Deborah Hopkinson

Four­teen-year-old Angela Deno­to and her fam­i­ly have arrived in New York City from their vil­lage in Italy to find them­selves set­tled in a small ten­e­ment apart­ment on the Low­er East Side. When her father is no longer able to work as a hod car­ri­er, Angela must leave school and find a job in a shirt­waist fac­to­ry. Despite being dis­ap­point­ed that she had to give up her edu­ca­tion, Angela is proud that she is able to help her fam­i­ly. But soon she begins to won­der about the steep price of the Amer­i­can dream, giv­en the dan­ger­ous con­di­tions at the factory.

Set against the birth of the labor union move­ment in the ear­ly 1900s, Angela finds her­self caught up in the dra­ma and tur­moil that erupts as the work­ers begin to strike, protest­ing the ter­ri­ble con­di­tions in the sweatshops.

In the pages of her diary, Angela records the hor­rors of the Tri­an­gle Fac­to­ry fire, along with the tri­umphs and sor­rows of the labor movement.