Newberry Award-winning author Katherine Paterson's tale of the 1912 mill worker's strike. Rosa's mother is singing again--union songs. She's joined the strike against the corrupt mill owners. Rosa is terrified. What is Mamma is jailed or, worse, killed? Jake's dad threatened to kill him if he joined the strike, For Jake, that is reason enough to do so. Then Rosa, Jake, and the other children living in the middle of the strike are offered a very special opportunity: to live in Vermont until the strike is over. For Rosa, being away from her family is worse than seeing them in harm's way. For Jake, it's a chance to start over. For both of them, it's a time of growing up.