It's a promise she clings to and saves for throughout the book.

At the beginning of the book, when they've lost their farm in Vermont and Lyddie and her brother have been more or less sold off by their mother and their father has 'gone west,' Lyddie promises Charlie that they'll be back. As always, Paterson has given us much to think and talk about.

When discussing this book with readers, stay within the action of the book as long as possible.

The equation of exploited workers' lots with those of slaves' is worthy of debate and the role that literacy plays in the book, from the misspelled but prophetic, 'we can still hop' through her own development of reading skill to teaching the other workers and to her own pursuit of education at Oberlin can be traced.Įxtensions of this book can result in a research unit on labor, child labor in specific, or on the role of mills in the economy of New England. When we first meet Lyddie she stares down a bear and there are other metaphoric bears for her to stare down throughout the book for readers to identify. There are many things in this fine novel which can bring about interesting discussions and insights. She says she may return to Luke Stevens(a young Quaker) to marry when she is 'not a slave.' When she is dismissed, Lyddie decides to go to Oberlin College (Ohio) for an education. Lyddie becomes friends with Diana Goss, Betsy and Brigid. The workers are exploited by the owners and bosses and those who agitate are dealt with harshly. The life in the Lowell mills is extremely regulated. The remainder of the book is set in and around the mills with their exploitation and paternal regulation of the workers. Lyddie is hired out to a tavern where, after observing the apparently successful life of a young female textile factory worker, she decides to go to the factories at Lowell, Massachusetts.

Charlie, accepted into the family he was hired out to, does well. Her mother, crazed by her obsession with an End-of-the-World religion, rents the farm and hires out Charlie (10) and Lyddie (13) into a kind of bondage. Her father left the farm to earn money, but has not been heard from since. In 1843, Lyddie Worthen, an impoverished Vermont farm girl, is determined to gain her independence (and money to pay off the debts of the farm). Paterson's ability to portray a different time and place through believable and likeable characters will not be disappointed in this book for sixth graders and up.

Lyddie novel