Which Side Are You On?: The Story of a Song

Writing in the folksy voice of the daughter of a Kentucky coal miner, Lyon (All the Water in the World) tells the story of the genesis of a pro-union song written by Florence Reece (the fictionalized narrator's mother) in 1931. Evoking woodblocks and scratchboard, Cardinale's (Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush) hard-edged illustrations provide the tale's momentum and amplify its grittiness. The narrator and her siblings are shown hiding under the bed early on, as bullets zing through the windows and walls of their company home; they are meant for the children's father, a miner and union organizer. Dodging bullets, their mother tears a page from a calendar and writes the eponymous song, a rallying cry for oppressed workers ("Don't scab for the bosses./ Don't listen to their lies"); the lyrics appear in ribboned banners throughout, encircling mining tools and rifles. Lyon's storytelling jumps between speech-balloon dialogue and the girl's clipped observations ("This is how the night goes: bullets through the walls, talk under the bed, words on the page"). It's a high-stakes account of grace under pressure. An afterword provides additional historical context. Ages 7-12. (Oct.)

Gr 3-6--When the coal miners in eastern Kentucky went on strike in the 1930s, the company's hired thugs and the local sheriff united forces to convince strikers to return by shooting at their homes and families. Brave and angry, Florence Reece, the wife of a union organizer, tore the calendar off the wall and began to write each time the bullets stopped. Her determination to combat the violence resulted in words for a song of defiance. "Which Side Are You On?" was a demand for social justice and was written to "bring folks together." A progression of busily detailed, full-bleed block-print illustrations, with almost captionlike brief sentences, follows the attacks and opens the Reece home to readers. The brief story is told through the eyes of one of the children, and it captures the danger as well as the fear the family experienced. Views from varied perspectives reveal the seven children with their mother, from above and hiding under the bed and in portraits sharing conversations marked by speech bubbles. Ribbons of song lyrics weave across scenes of the miners' tools of their trade and the guns of hired company toughs. A thorough author's note follows the text, ending with the song's musical notation and one version of the words on the back cover. The use of music as a protest element makes an interesting addendum to resources on union history or the time period.--Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX