Article, Booktalks
A Coal Miner's Bride Booktalk
- Grades:Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12
About this book
Scholastic Booktalk
Anetka is determined to pick out her own husband, even though it isn’t traditional in nineteenth-century Poland. But a letter from her father and a doomed encounter with a Russian soldier soon change her life forever.
It is 1896, and in Poland, girls marry young: when they are only 13 or 14. Marriages are not for love, but are arranged by the girl’s father. But Anetka Kaminska and her best friend Stefania Krupnik are determined to marry for love. They will choose their own husbands!
And that’s not the only thing that Anetka is stubborn about. The Russian Czar, who rules Poland, has forbidden the people to speak or write Polish. The schools are taught in Russian, and only Russian is spoken on the streets. But Anetka gathers the village children at her grandmother’s house every week to teach them Polish. Her life is busy. She helps her grandmother with the chores, teaches the children, tends her beehives, and worries about the Polish boys who are forced into the Russian army. Then one night she’s awakened by shouts and the smell of smoke. The shoemaker’s shop had been destroyed by the Russians, who want to make an example of the Jews. Angry, Anetka goes the next morning to help the Levys clean up. When she bumps into a young Russian soldier, she angrily asks him why Russians have no hearts. Instead of getting angry, he smiles at her, asks her name and tells her his is Leon. Although she thinks he is flippant and rude, Leon keeps showing up in her life. He’s even the one who brings her the letter that changes her life completely.
The letter is from her father, Tata, who is a coal miner in Pennsylvania. He has found Anetka a husband. Stanley Gowyrch wants a good wife from the old country, and Tata has promised Anetka to him. Stanley has even sent tickets so Anetka, her little brother Jozef, and their grandmother can come to America. Anetka is furious, but what can she do? She begins to make plans slowly, while praying to Saint Anne to send her a sign that she should go to America.
She gets a sign, but it’s far from what she was expecting. She is attacked by a Russian soldier who’s found out about her Polish classes. But before she is hurt, Leon appears and knocks the man unconscious. Now there is no doubt that Anetka and Leon must leave Poland as soon as possible. The revenge of the Russians is sure to be swift and cruel. Her grandmother gives her ticket to Leon, they pack quickly, and leave as soon as it is dark.
That was May 26th. A month later Anetka and Jozef finally find their father. They have not seen Leon since the immigration officials took him away. They are sure he has been deported.
On the Fourth of July, Anetka finally meets her future husband. He asks if she likes children, and when she says yes, he takes her to his shanty, and introduces her to his daughters, ages 6, 4, and 3. Anetka can’t believe it! Stanley doesn’t want a wife, he wants a mother for his children, the oldest only seven years younger than Anetka herself!
What kind of a life will she have? What kind of a marriage? Listen to Anetka tell you about what it was like to be a Polish coal miner’s thirteen-year-old bride.
This Booktalk was written by librarian and booktalking expert Joni R. Bodart
- Subjects:Immigration, Communities and Ways of Life, European, Social Studies Through Literature, Courage, Changes and New Experiences, Confronting and Resolving Fears, Families and Social Structures, Growing Up, Moving, Survival
