Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor

by Russell Freedman, Lewis Hine (Photographer)

The Newbery Medal-winning author of A Photobiography provides a close-up profile of Lewis Hine, a New York City schoolteacher and photographer whose dramatic photographs led to the passage of vital legislation against child labor.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Photography, Art, Childrens, Biography

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Russell A. Freedman was an American biographer and the author of nearly 50 books for young people. He may be known best for winning the 1988 Newbery Medal with his work Lincoln: A Photobiography.

He grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of California, Berkeley, and then worked as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press and as a publicity writer. His nonfiction books ranged in subject from the lives and behaviors of animals to people in history. Freeedman's work has earned him several awards, including a Newbery Honor each for Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery in 1994 and The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane in 1992, and a Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal.

Freedman traveled extensively throughout the world to gather information and inspiration for his books. His book, Confucius: The Golden Rule was inspired by his extensive travels through Mainland China, where he visited Confucius' hometown in modern day QuFu, in the Shantung Province.

Reviews

[Quinn Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russell Freedman is one of my favorite non-fiction authors for young people. His best books use vintage photography to explore the themes of a time period, and his writing is clear and concise enough to get his message to his readers. Some of his best include Lincoln: A Photobiography, Children of the Great Depression, and his latest was The War to End All Wars. All are wonderful.

One of the first of Freedman’s books I read was Kids At Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. I got to revisit that book this month with some teachers, and I re-read the book as a refresher. Lewis Hine was a schoolteacher and photographer in the early 20th Century, appalled at the conditions he saw children working in. Despite these harsh conditions, Hine believed that people were basically good.

“Seeing is believing, said Hine. If people could see for themselves the abuses and injustices of child labor, surely they would demand laws to end those evils.”

This faith in the American people pushed Hine to con his way into the factories, and mines, and schools and tenements, doing what no one had done before—looking at the children of America and becoming a crusader for their cause.

The photographs in Kids at Work high quality, with wonderful composition and detail. Many of them are either posed or staged to great effect, but others seem to be true candids. Some have criticized Hine for his staging, but he wasn’t making anything up, he was trying to get the best photograph possible for each subject. Photojournalism was still a new field, and he was pioneering the best way he knew how.

More than anything, these photographs aim for your heart. They include girls working in mills, tending machines bigger than the homes they live in; boys in a glass factory; breaker boys in a coal mine; a seven year old girl who’s “an experienced oyster shucker.” While many of the pictures are portraits of misery, there are many others where the children seem happy, or at least satisfied. And while they were certainly being exploited by the corporations who were employing them, they were exemplars of a society that didn’t yet have any framework to help the immigrants, the poor, the victims of industrialization. Do we today?

The book interweaves Hine’s own biography through that of his subjects, and looks at the difference that one man was able to make. He died penniless and unknown, and yet his photographs prompted a seismic shift in how we treat children in this country. There are still massive inequalities, still social injustice, but Lewis Hine was a force for good in a world that was crueler than the world we live in now. This book left me with one final question—how can I do the same?

[KatLynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

While working on a Genealogy project I came upon the works of Lewis Hine and had to know more. This is an excellent book depicting the working conditions of children in the 1800/1900s. Hine's documentary photography was very instrumental in establishing Child Labor laws.

I've come to greatly admire Lewis Hine for his dedication and sacrifice. He was a voice for many who were exploited, neglected, and abused.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photographs in this book were absolutely amazing. The startling clarity and richness of the faces were amazing. I couldn't believe that these photographs were taken almost a hundred years ago. A part of history that is not very well known, I liked how the author incorporated the photographs and Lewis Hine's life, giving me a brief look into the past. I immensely enjoyed this book, it was educational, had beautiful photographs and I learned more about something that I didn't know much about. I'd definitely recommend this book.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2008...

[Phuong Dao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book talks about child labor during the year of the Great Depression. Children were put to work because the labor was cheaper and back then they did not have any laws that protects this children. Despearate for money, many family have sent their children to work in factories days and night just to earn meager wages. Many children were being abused, and injured with no compensations. This book is a good book to learn about the pass and what have changed over the years with the laws and rights that protect the children.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the grand scheme of labor verses corporations, it's often hard for me to see labor leaders as anything other than opportunists. Oh sure, they market themselves as agents of justice, but are often just as intent on making money and finding fame on the backs of the little man as the corporation.

Enter Lewis Hine, a compassionate man with an earnest desire to expose oppression through the burgeoning field of photography. Once again, Russell Friedman has done an exceptional job in fusing period photographs (in this case, all Hines' work) with insightful historical narrative. The result is an educational book about labor, oppression, children, art & the visual image, public opinion and championing the cause of the most vulnerable among us. Hine pursued these subjects, travelling all over the country to document the various circumstances in which so many found themselves. From mills to coal mines, from sweatshop tenements to endless furrows of cotton or sugar beets, from glass works to shrimp farms, Hine was intent on exposing the broad exploitation of child and immigrant labor.

And then the times changed. Hine's style fell out of favor and he himself began to slip into the same desperate situation for which he had called out for vindication. His death was like so many of the subjects he photographed: quiet, seemingly meaningless, lacking public notoriety. Rather than end there, Freedman explains how Hines' work was resurrected by a cherished apprentice and came to be recognized as a crucial piece of the portrait of America.

I highly recommend this book for students of all ages. Blessings on Mr. Hines! Bravo, Mr. Freedman!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a difference a century makes!
Lewis Hine’s goal was to show people via photography exactly what children at work meant. It meant cutting yourself to the bone and continuing work. It meant 12 or more hours of work for obscenely small amounts of change. “Angelica is — old”, he (Hines) reported. “She pulls apart the petals, inserts the center, and glued it to the stem, making 540 flowers a day for five cents.” How old do you think Angelica is? Would you believe THREE YEARS old????
While carrying 50 pounds of camera equipment, he would make notes in a notebook. He felt everything had to be exact and perfect so as there to be no question as to authenticity. He also knew he would get only one chance at a photograph, likely before being thrown out by managers and owners who of course didn’t want any information to leak out.

While I fervently feel we need to change the current work force to bring back unions and better work conditions that have been lost over the course of my life, it is good to remember that times have been much worse and that we also need to fight to keep standards we have now from getting worse. The book grimly reminds readers, likely children, that child labor still exists in our country, done by illegal immigrants who need their children working to make some kind of a living for their families and are still used in migrant farm work.

The photographs are all by Hine except those of Hine. They are superb! All black and white, all worthy of long looks and all pretty much shocking. Including the last one of a group of happy boys who clearly belong to families much wealthier than the girls and boys who make up the rest of these horrifying photographs. The contrast is what is shocking. Ironically, Hine himself died in poverty.

I’m trying to read as much of Freedman’s works as I can. There isn’t one that is less than very very good so far. This one, though, is superb!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids at Work is a photobiography of the life of Lewis Hine, teacher and photographer. Hine is best known for his work as a documentary photographer. Some of his photos are among the most iconic and well-recognized photos of immigrants at Ellis Island, child laborers, and construction workers building the Empire State Building. Hine put a face on child labor that was difficult for the American public to ignore, and his photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the U.S.
Hine's powerful black and white images are the highlight of the book while the text is mediocre. The subtitle of the book is a more accurate description of it's contents as it is truly more of a brief biography of the life of Hine and his work on many projects, only a few of which had anything to do with child labor. The book is limited in the sense that it only deals with child labor in the United States and does not discuss the ongoing problem with child labor internationally.
Although the book's intended audience is likely middle-school children, Hine's photographs are probably more fully appreciated by adults. This book was of personal interest to me since my grandfather was a child laborer, farmworker, and migrant laborer during the Great Depression. For those who are interested, it is worth noting that the Library of Congress and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County both hold an extensive collections of Lewis Hine photographs - a fact not noted in the book.

[Jody Kyburz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read (lots of photographs) about a nice man and teacher whose heart went out to children stuck working in mills, mines, canneries, and cotton fields back in the day before Child Labor Laws. He photographed them because "seeing is believing." He had to get sneaky lots of times, but he did it for the children. A moving, compelling book which makes my fifth graders sit up and pay attention. It makes me want to reach out and save a child who deserves a childhood and an education with appropriate training along the way to eventually make a living for themselves at the proper time. And, of course, we all love Russell Freedman!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just shared this book with my children for the first time. Fantastic book for kids who are complaining about doing their chores. Definitely puts their life in perspective and helps them gain a great appreciation for the freedoms, liberties, and privileges they enjoy in this country and is an interesting conversation starter about how children in other countries still live. Photographs really bring the story close to home!

[Brenda Shufelt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of Lewis Hine and his crusade.

[Antoinette Van Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

lewis hine was one of the most influential photographers and documentarians of the twentieth century. his movement from teacher to advocate resonates deeply with me and it does not pass me by how risky it was for him to capture the photos that he did. labor rights and the quality of life of so many were changed by his work. this is a great (and very succinctly put) primer to his work and life. very easy read and high quality pictures-- all given whole pages to cover, not crowded in beside the words.

[Julianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Mid.

[Samantha Morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A former teacher turned investigative reporter, Lewis Hine went touring around the United States to visit places which had child labor. Without permission, he took pictures of the children who were working, many of which were four or five years old. These 61 pictures show the harsh conditions the children worked in, with some of them working in mines, factories, and mills. Despite all the work Hine did, the author includes that there is child labor in the united states to this day.

Evaluation: The pictures in this book show more information than the words alone could ever show. This book shows how important pictures are. The pictures include small kids working in dangerous places. It also shows the expressions of the children. It also shows the ragged, dirty clothes the children wear, and the machinery and conditions they worked in.

Teaching Ideas: This would be a great book to use while talking about the industrial revolution. It gives insight to the working conditions that adults and children worked in during this time and the challenges they faced during this revolution. Students can look at the pictures and write their own article about child workers like Hine did. They can make their article about how these working conditions are unjust and why they should be changed. The gifted students or students who need more challenging material can make their own newspaper and include other pictures and articles in their newspaper to make it seem authentic to this time period.

[Alex Tierney]

Kids At Work is a book by Russell Friedman about child labor laws and the jobs that children had to do when they were young. Children that worked in mills and farms were as young as 3 years old. Lewis Hine was New York teacher and a photographer who went around to different places and documented the jobs that children were doing. Eventually after years of documentation, Hines was able to get the pictures that he took out into the public in magazines and newspapers. His photos were a powerful weapon in the crusade against child labor.

This book does convey accurate and authentic factual material. The book is a first hand look at what child labor in the 1800's and early 1900's was like. The person that the author wrote about went into all of the work places and documented the things that he saw. This information is presented in an organized way. Each chapter goes through and describes the different jobs that children were assigned to such as breaker boys, spinners,and street kids and farm kids. The book also talks about Hine and the different jobs that he did, after the child labor projects, at the end of the book. One of his projects was documenting the building of the Empire State Building. The format of the book is appealing to children. The book goes by chapter and exaplains each job in that chapter. The things that children had to do were separate so that children can understand one job at a time. Also, there was an introduction that gave the reader a background on what child labor was so that while the reader went through the book, they understand what was happening. The author's writing style is clear and demonstrates enthusiam for the topic. The author wrote about Lewis Hine who was the one who went into the jobs and wrote this book because he was so passionate about the subject and wanted people to know about it. The writing is clear and is easy to understand.

I believe that this book would be good to use in the classroom because it can show children what life was like hundreds of years ago. I think that the book was a good portrayal of history and what child labor was like. I also think that the pictures in the book really show was children had to go through in order to make money and provide for their families.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russell Friedman
This book is about child labor and the kinds of jobs children as young as three years old were doing because they were forced too. Lewis Hine was a teacher who went around and documented the kinds of jobs these children were being forced to do like working on farms and in mills. He took photographs of this child labor going on and was later able to publish what he saw in magazines and newspapers. When he reported about what he saw and showed the pictures people started to be alarmed and this started the Crusade Against Child Labor.
I think this is a good book for children to read or even have it read aloud to them because it goes to show how things used to be and what life was like for kids their age back then. It also shows how one person can REALLY make a difference just by speaking up and standing up for something you feel strongly about. I really enjoyed reading this and found it very informational because it opened up my eyes to what things were like back then as well and how we now have child labor laws that are strongly enforced in today's society.

This book has very accurate information and has factual and documented material.
The information presented in this book is organized very well making it easy for the reader to follow along with what is going on throughout the book.
The format is appealing to children because it has some interesting illustrations that are real pictures actually taken and the plot deals with children so that grabs their attention as well.
The author's writing style is clear.It generates enthusiasm throughout the book because it catches young readers attention because they see what it was like for people their age back then.

[Kayleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for a quarter at a second-hand shop, and the reason why I picked it up is because my grandfather worked at the coal mines after dropping out of school in the second grade. I had never given much thought before as to what this experience would have been like for him, and I could never ask him since he passed away before I was born. This book gives me an idea, though.

This book is a collection of the photography of Lewis Hine, a schoolteacher turned photographer & activist who traveled the United States documenting child labour in industries ranging from coal mines to canneries, cotton-picking to silk-flower-making.

Hines often went undercover, posing as an insurance salesman, photographing factory equipment under the pretense of wanting to insure it, and asking children to pose by the machinery under the pretense of needing to show the scale of the machinery. When factory owners suspected something suspicious and would not let him in, he'd stand by the entrance and photograph the children on their way to or from work. These photos were later incorporated into brochures and displayed during speeches against child labour, and were ultimately instrumental in the passing of child labour laws.

The photography is accompanied by text which describes the life of Lewis Hine and goes into detail about child labour and the history of the anti-child-labour movement in the USA. It's written in plain English and is suitable (and, in fact, intended) for children to read, although it's certainly relevant and interesting for readers of all ages.

I recommend this book if you have an interest in black and white photography, history, or child labour.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first picked up this book, I was thinking of an older classroom setting not only because of the aesthetics of it, but also the content that it addressed. However, after reading this book, I am very pleased to say that it was a very enjoyable read and I can see how it can be applied to various age groups.

The text revolves around the photographer Lewis Hine specifically, instead of child labor itself. At first this surprised me. I originally thought that the book would be more about child labor. But, because of the focus on Lewis Hine, it is a good book to use for research purposes.

Instead of hand-drawn illustrations, this book provides photographs to supplement the story. I liked that it used these photographs because it can show students that there are different ways to illustrate text and that there are other forms of artwork out there.

After completing this book, I can see a variety of ways in which a teacher can apply the concepts to their classroom, making this a great book to include in a classroom library. Due to the material presented, I see children using it for research purposes instead of a "fun" read. However, this does not hinder the quality of the book. Once students can get into the book, I believe that they would enjoy it, especially if they can apply it to their own lives in some way.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book at the start gave me mixed feelings.
On one hand, the book provided perspective on how the kids were sold to do dangerous work of labor. The author gave a lot of fo information about child labor on each page and shared stories about the children and they work. On the other hand, this book also shares the story about Lewis Hine, a photographer who started to work for the NCLC and took photos of the children working to prove his point of child labor.
I didn't like how in most parts of the book it talked about Lewis' past life and how he started to develop to become a photographer. However, Lewis does play a big part in the book as he was the one who showed to America on how hard the children are working behind the scenes. Overall, it was a great informative book about child exploitation and the development of Lewis Hine's photography. I recommend this book to people who want to dig deeper into child labor.

[Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids at Work exposes the foreign world of child labor using startling images from Lewis Hine. In a world today where people are abhorred at the mention of child labor in the news or media, reading this book sheds light on a world foreign to most of us alive today.

Children were working long hours and starting as early as the age of three. They worked in coal mines, spinning houses, the food industry, almost anywhere, and for little or no money. Kids were robbed of their childhood and Freedman does a good job of proving that to us both with the use of testimonial text with the support of Hine's photos. This book is Upton Sinclare's 'The Jungle' of child labor, exposing the past which brought us to the present.

[Julia Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating portrait of photographer Lewis Hine offers a literal view of the world child laborers lived in at the turn of the century. It discusses, at length, how Hine used his photographs to draw attention to the conditions in which children labored. The human face he gave the child labor problem was a big part of what helped bring attention to this issue.

There is discussion of Hine's motivations, past, and even the tools he used while snapping his moving photos. I would love to use this as part of a thematic unit on labor rights, or in discussion of the power of art in society.

This is a bit dense for anything less than upper 4th grade students, text wise. However, younger children could easily appreciate the beautiful black and white photographs!

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stark and often painful look at the horrors children when through during the early 1900's before the institution of child labor laws.

I was actually brought to tears a few times while reading this nonfiction book about Lewis Hine, a investigative photographer who often went undercover to take pictures of underaged children, often only ages 5 or 6, who worked in unhealthy and unsafe conditions in factories, farms, and other places of employment. The black and white pictures are stunning and add to the atmosphere and reality of what the book discusses.

My kids and I read this book together, and it made for many hours of conversation about children's rights and how the child labor laws affect how children and the idea of work is looked at today. I'd highly recommend reading this book.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book Kids At Work, photographer Lewis Hine wanted the world to know more about Child Labor. He spent his time traveling around to country, taking photos of young children working hard all day in dangerous conditions, in attempt for more people to be aware of Child Labor, and to enforce laws to prevent it. “Seeing is believing”, and once more people see what is going on, more people will take action. This book is full of photos of child labor, and the story behind them. This book was very interesting because it showed how one person was determined and wanted to stop child labor, and so he spent his life taking photos. I recommend this book because it is full of good information, and includes many photos that capture a moment of child labor.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author, Russell Freedman, explores the life and passion of photographer Lewis Hine and his work on behalf of child laborers in the early twentieth century. This biographical text breaks Hine’s work into chapters and includes Hine’s startling black and white photographs of child laborers. While the text format does not lend itself to the reader, the large photographs that fill every-other page will invoke emotion and empathy.

This text can provide information as well as give rise to critical inquiry. Discussion regarding child labor is sure to follow after reviewing this book and would complement the fictional text, Working Cotton.

[Ruby]

I saw an exhibit of Hine's child labor photographs at the New Jersey state museum in Trenton during our recent anniversary trip in May of this year. The photos were quite striking because they truly captured the hardships child labor in the early 1900s. This book is written for school children but was still an enjoyable read for me to learn more about the artist and his cause. Interestingly, I did not recognize any of the photos in the book as having been ones that were in the exhibit I saw. I was a little sad about that.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russell Freedman's book "Kids At Work; Lewis Hine And The Crusade Against Child Labor" has three parts: the biography of Lewis Hine, the history of the child labor movement and a gallery of Lewis Hine's photographs of young children working in grueling and often dangerous jobs. The incredible photographs enliven a text, which is a bit verbose especially for children. The book however gives an excellent overview of both Lewis Hine and his part in bringing child labor to the attention of American public in order to establish severe restrictions on the practice.

[Ian Raffaele · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, quick read of Lewis Hine's work showcasing the horrors of child labor during the early 1900s. Ever see pictures of kids working in a textile factory? Hine took those pictures. He would often con his way into the factory or coal mine to get the pictures he needed. The book is an easy read; about middle school level. The pictures were amazing. Excellent as a primer for understanding the Progressive Age.

[Bernadette Kearns · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book that explores the work of photographer Lewis Hine. The writing is detailed and poignant, yet accessible to middle grade readers through the use of interspersed photographs and short chapters. This would be an excellent book to use in a nonfiction unit as a whole class text or read aloud. The pictures, while haunting, are simply stunning images of children at work. Such an important pioneer in documentary photography.

[Callie Hennessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book was mostly just pictures that Lewis Hine took, it was really helpful for my school project on Lewis Hine and gave me a really good idea on what the average life was like for these labored children. This book was also kind of like a timeline and it helped me know when these children were suffering through these things. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it was a little boring and it would be a casual book that I would recommend for people to read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

In light of growing awareness of modern-day slavery & Common Core, I think this title will be useful. Though older, it highlights a famous photographer, his point of view, and primary sources. Paired with other titles on child labor today or internet research on the subject, it would be valuable for Common Core activities.

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to put into words that such young children would need to work and not be children. It was especially hard and sad to see the pictures of the toddlers working with bloody, chapped hands. It is a time in history that children today have not concept of. I think all 4th graders and up should read this. I read excerpts to my kids as I was reading it. The photos are amazing.