counting on grace By Elizabeth Winthrop

Grace Forcier is a twelve-year-old girl attending a one-room school in a mill town in Vermont in the early 1900s. She has trouble sitting still, and she is left-handed, even though her teacher, Miss Lesley, makes her write with her right hand. Both her parents and her older sister, Delia, work in the mill. When Grace’s friend, Arthur, is pulled from school to begin work in the mill, Grace goes to work in the mill as well. Grace learns that Miss Lesley thinks she is smart enough to become a teacher. How will she get out of mill work to continue learning enough to become a teacher? What about Arthur? Will he continue to work in the mill or will he run away as he wants to do? This is a fiction story, but it is based on real-life events of the time. Find out what happens to Grace, her family, and Arthur by reading this historical fiction novel.