To the Discussion Leader
Author Susan Campbell Bartoletti knows about the coal country of Pennsylvania. Her nonfiction book Growing Up in Coal Country garnered many awards, and Kids on Strike! was named a best book of '99. In A Coal Miner's Bride, she brings young readers to the 1890's coal mining towns, boarding houses, and into the dangerous mines themselves. Through the diary entries of thirteen-year-old Anetka Kaminska, Bartoletti spins the tale of arranged marriages and the dawn to dusk work of immigrant girls and women caring for their coal mining men and young families in a new land filled with different customs and plenty of people who dislike or fear the new immigrants. Readers get an indelible picture of the dangerous work in the mines made worse by rich bosses who cut wages, endanger the miners, and pit worker against worker until talks of unions and strikes lead to violence.
A Coal Miner's Bride is about the immigrant men who descend into the black tunnels each day and come out coughing and covered with coal dust. But even more, this diary is about the heroic females the men come home to each night. Bartoletti says, "I owe this book to strong women. I am not Polish, but when I first started to think about Anetka and her qualities and traits, I thought about the strong women in my family: my grandmother who ran a boardinghouse; my mother who was widowed at twenty-three and left with two small children; my husband's grandmother who was married at thirteen to a coal miner and had her first baby at fourteen; my mother-in-law who knows the old ways; and my daughter who is learning the ways of her mother and grandmothers while still forging her own path."
Summary
Babcia stroked my hair. "It is a father's duty to find his daughter a good husband."
"To devil with duty! He has traded me for steamship tickets. I don't want to go to America. I don't want to marry a man I do not love."
Despite her objections and prayers, Anetka Kaminska and her pesky younger brother Jozef cross the Polish countryside on foot, in wagons and trains, and bribe their way to the ship that carries Anetka to her father and the husband he has selected for her. These two children have left behind trouble — persecution for teaching Polish — as well as their friends and the village they love. Instead of Babcia, their grandmother, Anetka's traveling companion is the Russian soldier, Private Leon Nasevich, who has saved her life.
The crossing brings hunger, English lessons, new friends, and a surprise for Anetka. On the night of the summer solstice, when all the émigrés celebrate in the old-world style, Leon pulls Anetka into the circle of dancers. "I could scarcely catch my breath. When the dance was over, Leon didn't let go, but pulled me away from the circle and kissed me on the mouth. That kiss traveled down to my feet."
On the 4th of July 1896, Anetka celebrates her first American holiday, attends her first baseball game, and finally meets her future husband. "Stanley is tall. He is strong looking. He has an agreeable face though he doesn't smile much. His teeth are white and straight. I am glad, for I would not want to kiss a husband with crooked yellow teeth. He doesn't smell bad, and his neck is clean." Stanley's first question to Anetka is simply, "Do you like children?" He has an ulterior motive for wanting a bride — three young daughters and no one to care for them. Before the evening is over, Anetka's wedding date has been decreed: July 25th — just 21 days hence.
During her first year of marriage, Anetka, who has barely rounded her thirteenth namesake day, masters the duties of a good wife: butcher a hog and a chicken, cook, clean, tend babies, plant a garden and preserve vegetables and berries, smoke meats, and transform cabbage into sauerkraut. She also witnesses the greed of the American mine owners who inflate prices then cheat workers by imposing illegal taxes. She learns what it means to bear adult responsibilities while only a child, and she prays daily that her family remains safeguarded from Black Mariah — the wagon of death. Before Anetka reaches her fourteenth birthday, she has endured more than a lifetime's grief — and experienced more than a lifetime's satisfaction. Anetka lives her life remembering, "To know love in your life, you must know love in you heart."
Thinking About the Book
1. What is the one thing that happens to Anetka that you would share with your best friends if you wanted them to read the book? Why is this your favorite part of her diary?
2. How do you feel about the men in Anetka's diary? Write a sentence that describes how you feel about each of these male characters:
| Her father | Private Leon Nasevich | Stanley Gawrych | | Mr. Bogdan | Her brother, Jozef | Sheriff Martin |
3. What does Anetka mean when she says, "To know love in your life, you must know love in you heart."
4. How does Anetka learn English? Why is learning English so important to her?
5. A teacher has to do a good job explaining things and keeping lessons interesting. Susan Campbell Bartoletti, the author of The Coal Miner's Bride, was a eighth grade teacher for eighteen years. Judging from Anetka's diary, do you think you would enjoy having Mrs. Bartoletti as your teacher? Explain.
6. On September 18, Anetka describes the sunrise: "It stretched along the purple mountains like a yellow and orange ribbon." Do all the people in her Pennsylvania town notice the sunrise or sunset? Find support in the book for your opinion.
7. The author of Anetka's diary said that if she had only two or three words to describe Anetka Kaminska, she would use "hart ducha"--a spirited heart. She said, "When I discovered those two Polish words — hart ducha — I knew they described Anetka perfectly. I admire her courage, spirit, and strength." If you had only two or three words to describe Leon Nasevich and Stanley Gawrych, what words would you choose for each man?
Student Activities
1. Anetka is in love with books, learning, and bees. Read Patricia Polacco's picture storybook The Bee Tree. How is the main character in Polacco's book similar to Anetka?
2. Plan and sketch a new cover for Anetka's diary. Consider such things as, would it be more important to picture the men on their way to the mines or the women milking their cows. Explain why you chose the particular scene you did.
3. Anetka's diary introduces readers to Polish customs, celebrations, and foods. Try making the Potato Dumplings using the recipe at the back of A Coal Miner's Bride. Or try making a sauerkraut chocolate cake using the recipe found at
http://www.ilovepickles.com/recipes/sauerchoccake.html
4. Design a Venn diagram comparing Private Leon Nasevich to Stanley. How do they laugh? What do they feel about education? How do they treat Anetka? Are these two men more alike or different?
5. If your husband was a worker in the Pennsylvania mines of the 1890s, would you be in favor of him taking part in a strike and joining the union of United Mine Workers? Why or why not?
6. Many of us have never seen a coal mine, nor do we know what the mines were like. Here are some websites that may help you discover more about mining in the United States.
* Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Pictures and Texts http://www.cohums. ohio-state.edu/history/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm
* Antique Images Photo Gallery http://members.aol.com/mkfritz/kestdrg2.htm
* Scranton Mining Pictures http://www.microserve.net/~magicusa/coalmine.html
* The Miners: http://www.microserve.net/~magicusa/miners.html
* A Labor History Timeline: http://online.sfsu.edu/~jdrew/web/historybib.html
* Lattimer: A Time to Remember by John Radzilowski http://users.rcn.com/salski/No26Folder/Lattimer_Massacre.htm
An Interview with Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D. & Linda M. Pavonetti: You've written two highly praised nonfiction books, Growing Up in Coal Country and Kids on Strike!, but this is the first book you've written in the Dear America fiction series. Did the process of writing A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska differ in any way from what you did in creating your nonfiction books?
Susan Campbell Bartoletti: In many ways, the process of writing A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska was similar to writing my nonfiction books. Both types of books — fiction and nonfiction — are a search for story. As a writer and a reader, there's nothing I crave more than a good story!
I find most of my stories in the "gaps," the places other people haven't
explored. That's where I find the untold stories in history, for the stories
that have been left out — left in the gaps of history — are important. For
instance, although many books tell what it was like to be a wealthy and
powerful coal operator or the coal miner, few books tell what it was like to be
a child who worked in the mines. Fewer books tell what it was like to be a
girl. And only A Coal Miner's Bride tells what it was like to be a
thirteen-year-old girl who was married to a coal miner. Anetka's story came
from the gaps.
The research process is also similar. For both fiction and nonfiction,
my work begins with secondary sources. I call it "reading around." The
secondary sources give me a good overview or background of the historical
time period. They also point me to good primary sources, such as contemporary newspapers, letters, diaries, and memoirs. And I utilize oral histories as often as I can.
To be a good researcher is to be a good detective, and I enjoy ferreting
out tidbits of information. For a diary book like A Coal Miner's Bride,
newspapers come in handy for small everyday details such as weather reports.
RFA & LMP:You were an eighth grade English teacher for nearly twenty years. How do you think that experience has influenced you as a writer for young people?
SCB: I never intended to be a teacher, but once I started teaching, I found
that junior high kids are easy to get hooked on, and I stayed for nearly
twenty years. Over the years, my students influenced me greatly, and I've
learned many lessons from them. I have an immense amount of respect for
them, and I think that respect for your audience is the foremost requirement
for anyone who wants to write. (The same holds true for teaching.) My
students had a clear sense of right and wrong, and many drew strength from
strong personal value systems — and still do. They think critically about
their world, and they won't accept the idea that life isn't fair. I admire
their spirit and courage, and I hope my characters reflect the spirit and
courage that my own students have exhibited.
RFA & LMP: The coal miners in Anetka's diary talk about the ghosts who inhabit the mines. Did you discover any interesting ghost stories while you were researching this book? Are coal miners today still superstitious people?
SCB: As immigrants came to the United States from the agrarian countries of Europe and Asia, they transplanted their customs, traditions, and beliefs.
The old-world ways of many immigrants seemed strange and frightening to many of the Americans who lived and worked in the coal region. As a result, the immigrants encountered much prejudice and discrimination.
Many mine workers were superstitious, and their superstitions have become part of the folklore of the mining culture. For instance, mine workers preferred to eat in the same spot every day and with the same friends. They believed it was bad luck to pass a woman on their way to work and for a woman to enter a mine. Rats thrived in the mines, and mine workers believed that the rats would warn them of an impending explosion or roof fall. Therefore, no mine worker would harm a rat. Often, the mine workers fed the rats crusts of bread from their lunches.
Mine workers also believed that the mysterious knocking and moaning
sounds in the mines were made by ghosts that only the mules could see. The
ghosts were the spirits of other mine workers who had been killed in
accidents.
Although mine bosses tried to convince mine workers that there were
logical explanations for the unknown sounds, the mine workers preferred to
believe their superstitions.
RFA & LMP: One of the most startling parts of Anetka's diary is the idea of a thirteen-year-old girl with so many responsibilities. Was this common among people already living in America or more typical of newly arrived immigrants?
SCB: In the coal region, the many daughters of immigrants married young--often as young as Anetka. In fact, the idea for a thirteen-year-old bride came from a family story. At thirteen, my husband's grandmother was married to a twenty-year-old coal miner. At fourteen, she had her first baby. This wasn't unusual in the coal region: by the time a girl was thirteen, she knew all she needed to know to take care of a house, a husband, and a family.
RFA & LMP: If you could pick two or three words to describe Anetka, what would those words be?
SCB: Anetka has hart ducha — a spirited heart. When I discovered those two
Polish words — hart ducha — I knew they described Anetka perfectly. I admire her courage, spirit, and strength.
RFA & LMP: What information did you learn about the immigrants that you think is really important for your readers to understand?
SCB: I hope readers understand that our country grew as immigrants — men, women, girls, and boys — contributed their diversity, talents, and skills to their new homeland.
Ever since I heard my husband's grandparents talk about their experiences
in the coal region of Pennsylvania, I became intrigued. His grandfather emigrated from Italy as a nine-year-old boy, and began working when he was eleven.
I began to wonder: what was it like to emigrate to a strange country, where you couldn't even speak the language? The immigrants were hard-working people who were eager to prove themselves. Polish men, for example, often accepted the worst and most dangerous jobs in the mines for the least pay. These were jobs nobody else wanted. Devoted to their family and friends, Polish men were often the first to volunteer for risky rescue operations after a disaster. Many times their bravery cost them their lives or resulted in injury.
RFA & LMP: What is one question you would like to ask your readers after they have finished reading A Coal Miner's Bride?
SCB: Do you have hart ducha?
Discussion Guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D., Professor of
Literature for Children and Young Adults, University of Houston, Houston,
Texas and Linda M. Pavonetti, Ed.D., Assistant Professor, Oakland
University, Department of Reading and Language Arts, Rochester, Michigan.
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