In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the T... read full description
reviews
Feb 02, 2012
Maureen
rated it: 
This was had been on my TBR list forever, and then I got it out and it was in my TBR stack forever and then I finally decided that this was ridiculous and I should just read it. So I did.
In this book, Davies intertwines the stories of two girls, Essie and Harriet, and also two historical events--the Triangle fire and the disappearance of Dorothy Arnold a few months before. It's straight historical fiction, with Essie as our narrator. I love historical fantasy as much as the next person More...
In this book, Davies intertwines the stories of two girls, Essie and Harriet, and also two historical events--the Triangle fire and the disappearance of Dorothy Arnold a few months before. It's straight historical fiction, with Essie as our narrator. I love historical fantasy as much as the next person More...
Oct 10, 2011
Anjali
rated it: 
This book is a good book. It's pretty boring at the beggining but as you go deeper into the book, you will like it.
Here's a quote from the book that I liked best:
" It;s like if you're on a street corner and someone next to you says, "I lost a penny," you would take a look around and do your best to help find it. Sure, you would. But if someone on that same corner says, "I lost a diamond ring," you would get down on your hands and knees and search 't More...
Here's a quote from the book that I liked best:
" It;s like if you're on a street corner and someone next to you says, "I lost a penny," you would take a look around and do your best to help find it. Sure, you would. But if someone on that same corner says, "I lost a diamond ring," you would get down on your hands and knees and search 't More...
Apr 02, 2011
Beverly
rated it: 
One of my Comp 102 classes is working with oral histories taken from survivors of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire for their current research/writing project. My favorite university librarian, a history buff, has been great about sending me articles and other information to share with the students. This week she loaned me Davies's excellent YA novel. I read it in two evenings. Davies intertwines two stories from the turn of the last century: the disappearance of the daughter of a we
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Jan 24, 2011
Danielle
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At age 16, Essie Rosenfeld is working at the Triangle Shirt Factory on the Lower East Side in New York City. Her family lives on the edge of poverty and the small wages she earns for working long hours, 6 days a week, help pay the rent, put food on the table, and spoil her little sister, Zelda.
Early on, we get the sense that something terrible has happened in Essie’s life (Zelda has died), but it takes her the entire book for her to come to terms with her loss. This is why she be More...
Early on, we get the sense that something terrible has happened in Essie’s life (Zelda has died), but it takes her the entire book for her to come to terms with her loss. This is why she be More...
Aug 03, 2010
Ellisa
rated it:
I would have loved this book if I'd read it as a young adult because of the emotion of the telling.
The author did a wonderful job bringing to life a past time where hats were works of art, street grinders still had monkeys, and girls worked in sweat shops sewing shirts.
The story is told by a nicely fleshed out main character who was both likable and sympathetic. The plot moves along at a good clip, helped along by a real life mystery.
There were a couple of thin More...
The author did a wonderful job bringing to life a past time where hats were works of art, street grinders still had monkeys, and girls worked in sweat shops sewing shirts.
The story is told by a nicely fleshed out main character who was both likable and sympathetic. The plot moves along at a good clip, helped along by a real life mystery.
There were a couple of thin More...
Apr 07, 2010
I think it must be terrible to be lost, but so much worse to be forgotten. p. 230, Lost.
There’s no chance in forgetting the characters in Jacqueline Davies’s Lost, so vivid and true are their voices. Like the more recent tragedy of 9/11, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911* is now burned into my consciousness as if with a hot brand. Seventeen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld lives on the lower east side of Manhattan in 1911. She has been taking care of her irrepressible, fierce b More...
There’s no chance in forgetting the characters in Jacqueline Davies’s Lost, so vivid and true are their voices. Like the more recent tragedy of 9/11, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911* is now burned into my consciousness as if with a hot brand. Seventeen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld lives on the lower east side of Manhattan in 1911. She has been taking care of her irrepressible, fierce b More...
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Feb 04, 2010
Suzanne
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What's nice about this historical fiction novel dealing with the tragic accident at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 NYC is that there is so much ELSE going on. Essie is only sixteen and is/was the primary person responsible for raising her little sister Zelda when her mother succumbed to depression after the death of her husband and the child's subsequent birth. Essie has blocked out Zelda's death, which the reader only knows is coming in the narrative. The story is split, and marked by
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Jan 22, 2010
Corinne
rated it: 
I have a mild obsession with immigrant stories from the turn of the century, especially those where the immigrants lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, so when the cover of this book caught my eye and I read the flap, I knew I wanted to try it.
Essie and her family have already had their share of heartbreak. When we meet her, her father has recently passed away and her mother is giving birth to a second sibling for Essie. This baby, born when Essie is 10, becomes the child of he More...
Essie and her family have already had their share of heartbreak. When we meet her, her father has recently passed away and her mother is giving birth to a second sibling for Essie. This baby, born when Essie is 10, becomes the child of he More...
Nov 05, 2009
Deanna
rated it:
Historical fiction, family, friendship, death/grief, New York in the early 1900s, poverty, factory work.
This is a beautifully written book that has sections that flash back in time between each chapter. Essie is denying/grieving the loss of her sister as she works as a seamstrees in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. A new colleague/friend Harriet Abbott is going through a similar situation.
I think what I most liked about this book is that the author Jacqueline Davies wove More...
This is a beautifully written book that has sections that flash back in time between each chapter. Essie is denying/grieving the loss of her sister as she works as a seamstrees in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. A new colleague/friend Harriet Abbott is going through a similar situation.
I think what I most liked about this book is that the author Jacqueline Davies wove More...
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Aug 04, 2009
Angela
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This was a nice enough book (as the alt-text on the stars says, "it was ok"), that carefully weaves together a few mysteries: the true identity of an upper-crust girl who shows up to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the fate of Essie's family being just two of the prominent ones. Essie has a strong, distinctive voice that shows through both the "contemporary" chapters and the flashback chapters about Essie's life with her little sister.
I was, however, d More...
I was, however, d More...
Oct 10, 2009
Brenda
rated it:
Essie is a young girl living in New York City during the early 1900s. We first meet her as a ten-year-old girl who stays home on the day her mom delivers a baby sister. When her mom doesn't show any interest in the baby, Essie takes over and the child becomes "hers." Essie's mother is too distraught from losing her husband and is overcome with worry that there will not be enough money to raise another mouth to feed. Later, Essie goes to works in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and
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Jun 16, 2009
Anne
rated it:
This beautifully-written book offers both compelling characters in Essie, Zelda and Harriet, and a fascinating time and setting (Lower East Side Manhattan, early 1900s). On a deeper level, LOST is Essie's journey from grief and denial to wholeness and the future's possibilities.
LOST's personalized view of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy toward the book's end is gripping and an important part of the plot, but even without this historic event or the sub-plot of a missing heires More...
LOST's personalized view of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy toward the book's end is gripping and an important part of the plot, but even without this historic event or the sub-plot of a missing heires More...
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Jan 31, 2010
Doneka
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This is THE best book of all time. Before, i didn't really have a favorite book, i just had lots that i thought were my favorites. That was before this book. The detail is incredible, the charachters are amazing, and the setting is great. overall this book is a must-read and should be on everybodys to-read list. This book beats any book of the twilight series -and i loved them all so its not like im saying anything is better-, its even better than the host -and i think that if i had to choose a
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Jul 10, 2010
Jacki
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This story takes an interesting look at a time period not often explored in teen fiction. The historical atmosphere never feels forced; the author never digresses into unnecessary detail at the expense of the plot. Essie is a strong, flawed girl, and her denial of her sister's death comes across as realistic, as does her relationship with Harriet, her mysterious and more educated friend. I enjoyed the book, although the flashbacks to Essie's relationship with her little sister didn't add as much
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Jun 15, 2011
Gayle
rated it:
I've always been drawn to stories about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC, March 26, 1911, that killed 141 people, mostly seamstress girls. I don't know why. Maybe a previous life?
Jacqueline Davies has written a historical fiction that interweaves this tragedy with another tragedy at the time for which I was unaware. On January 26, 1911 The New York Times reported on the disappearance of a Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold, the daughter of a wealthy family and niece of a forme More...
Jacqueline Davies has written a historical fiction that interweaves this tragedy with another tragedy at the time for which I was unaware. On January 26, 1911 The New York Times reported on the disappearance of a Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold, the daughter of a wealthy family and niece of a forme More...
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Dec 23, 2009
Elaine
rated it:
I picked this book up from the top of a pile of young-adult fiction brought in by my wife, lying in our room, and didn't put it down until I finished it. They page layout was beautiful, separating dated journal entries from chronological chapters, weaving memory and current story-telling throughout the book. The events only took place over the course of a few weeks in history, but not once during the read was I bored or questioning the author's intent. Everything about it was beautifully written
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Aug 18, 2010
Michael
rated it:
This book is packaged as YA/Youth Fiction, and if this is the quality of work that genre has to offer, I need to spend more time in that section. Quite simply one of the most powerful stories I've read. Impeccably researched and set in 1911 at the time of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire in NYC, the story follows Essie Rosenfeld, a young Jewish girl fighting for survival while dealing with nearly unbearable tragedy. Two converging stories are skillfully intertwined and another true story
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May 05, 2010
Jean
rated it:
This historical fiction novel was painful and compelling. Tragedy interwoven with tragedy. The flashback chapters brought us ever closer to discovering with Essie a truth too horrible to remember. Since I had read and knew the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company I also knew we were headed for tragedy on that front as well. There are several rather graphic and disturbing descriptions of accidents and burning. Perhaps, this was not the best book for me to read since I have been operatin
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Oct 15, 2009
Jan
rated it:
This is an absolutely lovely novel about a young girl named Essie who is a worker at the infamous Triangle factory. The novel toggles back and forth in time between when she was a young girl and her life as a teenage worker in the factory. There are many secrets in this novel which will tantalize readers. Why does Essie not accept that her baby sister has died in a terrible accident? Who is Essie's new friend at the factory who has a mysterious past? Essie is an endearing character, with her
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Sep 29, 2010
Newport YA Librarians
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An atmosphere of terrible forboding grips the reader from the first pages of Essie's story of tenement and factory life in the early 1900s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Essie's biggest worry, it seems, is her high-spirited and often disobedient younger sister Zelda. But then Harriet Abbott, a girl from a wealthy background, comes to work alongside Essie at the local sweatshop, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Essie's willingness to love her sister unconditionally and to reach out in frie
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Jul 16, 2010
Yvonne
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It is a shame enough people haven't read this book for libraries to keep it on their shelves. The jacket says the book is for children 12 years old and up. It is not escape literature. It is thought provoking. Plot wise it is a bit slow as the author has opted to tell two stories simultaneously. The stories get closer together until the point where they meld land become one story. Although there are some elements like the idiomatic yiddish words sprinkled throughout the book and the strange synt
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Dec 03, 2010
Sarah-Greenbeanteenqueen
rated it:
One of my least favorite on the Gateway list. I don't even know why this one didn't work for me. I just felt bored with the story. There were supposed to be a few plot twists, but I saw them coming, so there was no surprise for me, which made me disappointed. I also couldn't really relate to the main character, which made it hard for me to get into the story. I don't like historical fiction that much to begin with, so it was hard to get into this one with the slow moving storyline. I think it'd
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Apr 02, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
This is a hard book for me to rate. The prose was engaging. I liked the set up with 16 year-old Essie working in the sweatshop in NY lower East side, turn on the century. I liked the relationship between Essie and Harriet. I just thought that this book never really went deep enough. I wanted much more out of it. The story itself was a complete downer, and yes I get that this was a quasi-historical novel and all, but this was pretty grim. I've left funerals feeling more upbeat than I did when I
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Sep 10, 2009
Briony
rated it:
When I first read the jacket blip for this book, I was immediately interested. Here was a book that not only addressed one of America’s greatest work tragedies, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, but also depicted the lives of people during this time. I also loved that the language and actions matched the people of the era. Along with the historical view point, I enjoyed reading a fictional account that did not go bland with history. Davies did a magnificent job on research and was able to in
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Jun 07, 2010
Kristin
rated it:
Essie Rosenfeld lives on the Lower East Side of New York City during the early 1900s with her mother, her brother, Saulie and her little sister, Zelda. She works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and befriends a mysterious young woman there named Harriet Abbott. Essie can immediately tell that Harriet does not fit in with the other girls working in the ill-fated factory, and despite their differences the two girls become very close. There are plenty of subplots weaving throughout the story,
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Oct 06, 2010
Cheryl-Lynn
rated it:
3.5 stars. Some historical fictions are more on the fiction end of things and historical only because of the time period in which they are written. I thought that was how this one was until the end and then -wham it hits on two events. I need to go do more research about these now- there are so many forgotten events in history. One in this, not so big. The other- I'm sure it helped shape regulation. An interesting look at New York on the lower East side in the early 1900's.
*there i More...
*there i More...
Jan 10, 2010
Jordan
rated it:
Essie loves her sister, but now since she has to work at the shirtwaist factory she doesnt get to see her much anymore. But while working there she meets a new friend who has a huge burden behind her. After spending a lot of time with Harriet and looking up things at the local library she learns a huge secret . . .that only she can know
This book was really good and was full of action and suspense. I personall thought it was good and it kept me going all the way through
This book was really good and was full of action and suspense. I personall thought it was good and it kept me going all the way through
Jan 14, 2011
Alan
rated it:
Interest Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)
Word Count: 58860
a story of love, loss and longing. Set in the early 1900's it portray's the life of a 16 year old girl who lives in poverty. She get's a job in a factory sewing garments 6 day's a week, with the money she makes and the money her mom makes at the bakery, there's still little or nothing left at the end of the month.
The story alternates between the story of Essie and her sister Zelda, starting on the day Zelda was born, followed More...
Word Count: 58860
a story of love, loss and longing. Set in the early 1900's it portray's the life of a 16 year old girl who lives in poverty. She get's a job in a factory sewing garments 6 day's a week, with the money she makes and the money her mom makes at the bakery, there's still little or nothing left at the end of the month.
The story alternates between the story of Essie and her sister Zelda, starting on the day Zelda was born, followed More...
Feb 17, 2010
Joyce
rated it:
Lost was superb! I couldn't put it down. when I finished reading it the first time, I read it again. I remember reading the about this fire in history class, being horrified as well as fascinated by the shocking results of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, for years after, I imagined what it must have been like. Jacqueline Davies captures the terror and shows, with vivid tenderness, what it must have been like, to meet such an ending.
Jul 01, 2011
Jill
rated it:
Lost is a sobering, entertaining, hopeful story of a teenage girl who works in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Filled with conflict, love, loss, and forgiveness, this story addresses a horrific historical moment in a realistic way that deals head on with personal and communal tragedy while allowing the characters, and so the reader, to recover and face the future filled with hope.
