The Clock
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When her spendthrift father goes into debt after buying a sheep and the inner workings of a clock, fifteen-year-old Annie Steele is sent to work in the town’s new wool mill to help support her family. Her job is full of risk—especially after she and her friend Robert discover that the mill’s cruel overseer is stealing bags of wool and decide to do something about it. Annie longs for the chance to continue her schooling and become a teacher. Will she ever be able to leave the mill?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1802, factories are being built across America, and 15-year-old Annie must go to spin at the local mill so that her improvident father can pay for a clock. However, the mill's corrupt overseer, aptly named Hoggart, makes improper advances toward her. With neighbor and potential sweetheart Robert, Annie gathers evidence against Hoggart, but Robert dies in a suspicious accident and Annie must struggle on with little help. Her eventual triumph over Hoggart has a bitter taste: Robert is dead, and she cannot yet follow her dream of becoming a schoolteacher. As in My Brother Sam Is Dead , the Colliers dramatize abstract historical issues in a realistic, small-town setting; they show changes in women's roles, in material goods and even in ways of seeing time (differences between sun time and clock time), as these topics affect the townsfolk's everyday lives. The novel thus succeeds not only as historical fiction, but also as a riveting story of the tragic romance and hard-won victory of one teenaged girl. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 10-14.
