Lyddie
Katherine Paterson (1991)
“A thirteen-year-old Vermont farm girl fights her way into the Lowell mills, discovers the cost of independence, and chooses education over every easier path offered to her.”
Short Summary
After a bear invades their cabin and their mother abandons the family, thirteen-year-old Lyddie Worthen is hired out as a servant, then escapes to the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s. She becomes one of the fastest weavers in the factory, sacrificing her health and relationships for wages, but is eventually fired after defending a fellow worker from sexual harassment. Rather than accept marriage to the steady Luke Stevens, Lyddie chooses to pursue an education at Oberlin College — reclaiming her freedom on her own terms.
Detailed Summary
In 1843 Vermont, thirteen-year-old Lyddie Worthen faces a bear that breaks into the family cabin while her father is gone and her mother is paralyzed with fear. Lyddie stares the bear down — an act of defiance that defines her character for the entire novel. But courage cannot hold the family togeth...