A review by alexblackreads
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
4.0
I love the Dear America series as a whole, but I think this book is something special. While the books generally range from good to great, this one was memorable. Anetka is a 13 year old sent to America from Poland to marry a man more than twice her age. He has three children and she becomes mother to them. At thirteen.
It's so heartbreaking in such a normalized way. It's definitely commented on how young she is, but no one really seems to care, including Anetka herself. She's not bitter about becoming a mother when she's still a child herself. She just hikes up her sleeves and does it in a no nonsense way. I think the casualness of this book was what really sent it over the top for me. It's not horrifying that she's barely a teenager essentially being sold as a slave, it's just her life.
It's a great book, one of my favorites that I've read from this series and I would highly recommend.
It's so heartbreaking in such a normalized way. It's definitely commented on how young she is, but no one really seems to care, including Anetka herself. She's not bitter about becoming a mother when she's still a child herself. She just hikes up her sleeves and does it in a no nonsense way. I think the casualness of this book was what really sent it over the top for me. It's not horrifying that she's barely a teenager essentially being sold as a slave, it's just her life.
It's a great book, one of my favorites that I've read from this series and I would highly recommend.