SO FAR FROM HOME: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl
by Barry Denenberg
Scholastic
ISBN: 0590926675
Ages 9-12

In 1847, at the height of the great potato famine in Ireland, Mary leaves her family and country to join her aunt and sister in the U.S., where she can earn more money. Mary experiences a new independence, but it also comes at a cost, as she spends long hours working in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts.

------- Shannon Maughan