40 Fun Facts About Lyddie

Which wild animal forces its way into the family cabin in the opening chapter of Lyddie?

A black bear smells food cooking and pushes through the door, and Lyddie stares it down while her family climbs to the loft. From then on she thinks of each new trouble as another one to face.

In Lyddie, what does Lyddie's deeply religious mother take the animal's break-in to be a sign of?

The end of the world, Mama decides, is close, so she takes the two youngest girls to her sister's farm to wait for it. Tens of thousands of real Americans shared that fear in the 1840s.

In Lyddie, which word does Mama misspell in a letter, handing Lyddie and Charlie a private joke?

Hope comes out one letter short in Mama's letter, so it reads like a word for jumping. Charlie teases her spelling to cheer his sister up, and the slip becomes Lyddie's private motto.

In Lyddie, what kind of business does Mistress Cutler run, where Lyddie is hired out as a servant?

A tavern is where Lyddie works from before dawn until late at night, in a kitchen bigger than her family's whole house. A well-dressed guest there first tells her about factory wages.

In Lyddie, the kindly neighbors who look after the empty farm belong to which religious group?

Quakers taught that slavery was morally wrong, and many quietly sheltered people escaping it. Lyddie is wary of her neighbors' radical politics at first, then comes to depend on their kindness.

Lyddie leaves home to weave cloth in the textile mills of Lowell, a city in which state?

Massachusetts was home to Lowell's mills, which by 1840 had recruited over 8,000 workers. Nearly three-quarters of them were women, many the daughters of New England farmers.

Which Charles Dickens novel does Betsy read aloud in Lyddie, making Lyddie long to read for herself?

Oliver Twist grips Lyddie because its orphan hero also dreads the poorhouse. She later buys her own copy and fixes copied pages to her loom so she can practice reading as she works.

In Lyddie, Ezekial hides in the family's empty cabin on his way to freedom in which country?

Canada put Ezekial beyond the reach of the slave catchers in town. Lyddie hands him her savings for the journey, and he later writes from Montreal, enclosing fifty dollars to repay her.

Which writer, the author of Lyddie, later became National Ambassador for Young People's Literature?

Katherine Paterson has said Lyddie surprised her by growing so grasping, a mirror of the mill owners' greed. She published the novel in 1991 and served as national ambassador in 2010 and 2011.

In Lyddie, the hill farm Lyddie works to save from debt lies in which state?

Vermont is home, and the book's last chapter returns there in November 1846. It was also the first state to outlaw adult slavery, which made it a fairly safe stop for people fleeing north.

In the opening chapter of Lyddie, which food cooking over the fire lures a wild animal indoors?

Oatmeal is bubbling over the fire when the intruder arrives and plunges its head into the pot. Scalded, with the pot's handle caught round its neck, it crashes back out through the door.

In Lyddie, which farm animal do Lyddie and Charlie sell to a neighbor before leaving home?

A calf fetches twenty-five dollars, far more than Lyddie expected, once the buyer learns the children spent the whole winter alone. She means to put the money toward the family debt.

In Lyddie, which cook at Cutler's befriends Lyddie and lends her money for the journey to Lowell?

Triphena, who never married and has no children of her own, grows fond of the hard-working girl. When Lyddie is dismissed she hands over five dollars and a new pair of boots for the road.

In the cook's fable in Lyddie, a frog trapped in a milk pail kicks until the milk becomes what?

Butter is what the stubborn frog churns the milk into, while a second frog falls asleep and drowns. The tale gives the chapter its title, and Lyddie sees herself in the frog that keeps kicking.

In Lyddie, which seasonal job needs every hand at Cutler's and gives the mistress goods to sell?

Maple sugaring keeps the whole staff busy boiling sap once the snowstorm passes. New Englanders had learned the craft from Native people, and their sugar cost less than cane sugar shipped from the Caribbean.

In Lyddie, which book did the runaway Ezekial teach himself to read?

The Bible was the book Ezekial wanted to read for himself, and its stories and teachings convinced him he must seize his own freedom. Lyddie is struck by how polished his language and manners are.

What is the family name of Lyddie, her brother Charlie and her sisters Rachel and Agnes in Lyddie?

Worthen is the name on a farm deep in debt. With her husband gone, Lyddie's mother lets the fields to a neighbor and hires out her two eldest children to help pay what is owed.

In Lyddie, which animals did Lyddie's father borrow money to raise just before prices collapsed?

Sheep looked like a sure thing until the price of wool fell, leaving the family owing money on poor land. An earlier scheme to sell potash had failed him too.

In Lyddie, why does Mistress Cutler, back from a selling trip, dismiss Lyddie on the spot?

Going home without leave costs Lyddie her place, even though the cook, left in charge, had said she could go. Lyddie makes up her mind at once to try life as a factory girl instead.

In Lyddie, where has Lyddie's father gone, leaving Mama and four children alone on the farm?

Out west is where he went to make money, and no word has come since. Lyddie and Charlie stay behind in the cabin so he will know where to find them, though Mama doubts he will ever return.

In Lyddie, which weaver teaches Lyddie to run a loom and is called a radical by her roommates?

Diana comes to the rescue on Lyddie's deafening first day, when she cannot hear a word the overseer says. The roommates warn that she recruits girls for the Female Labor Reform Association.

In Lyddie, which fictional Lowell mill company gives Lyddie a one-year contract as a weaver?

Concord Corporation is invented, though it is based on the real mill corporations of Lowell. Its Number 5 boardinghouse, where Lyddie sleeps in the attic at first, gives one chapter its title.

In Lyddie, which boardinghouse keeper, a coach driver's sister, helps Lyddie find work at the mill?

Mrs. Bedlow warns Lyddie that the mills will not hire her in her old clothes, then takes her to the mill herself to ask for a job. Later she agrees to let little Rachel stay for a while.

In Lyddie, which loom-room chore do the weavers call the kiss of death?

Sucking thread through a shuttle drew fibers from the yarn straight into a weaver's lungs, and Lyddie has to do it many times a day. A fellow weaver shows her the trick when she first starts at the looms.

In Lyddie, what does the petition Lyddie hesitates to sign ask lawmakers to grant mill workers?

A ten-hour workday was a bold demand when shifts ran from five in the morning until seven at night. Lyddie holds back because shorter days would mean less money for the family debt.

In Lyddie, which fiber do Lowell's looms weave, filling the air with lint that makes workers cough?

Cotton lint hung in the closed weaving rooms, and breathing it gave some workers an incurable cough later known as brown lung. In the novel both Betsy and little Rachel fall ill with it.

In Lyddie, which newcomer does Lyddie train at the looms and later teach to read?

Brigid slows Lyddie down at first and gets the sharp edge of her temper. Things change after Lyddie presses her pocket change on the girl to fetch a doctor for her sick mother.

In Lyddie's time, which disaster drove thousands of Irish families to mill towns such as Lowell?

A potato famine, known in Ireland as the Great Hunger, followed a disease that ruined the crop. Between a fifth and a quarter of the Irish either emigrated or died.

In Lyddie, which Sunday duty do the mill's rules require of every girl in the Lowell boardinghouses?

Attending church was written into the regulations, partly to reassure parents who were sending daughters to the city. Lyddie rarely goes, and once reads a copied page of her novel during the sermon.

In Lyddie, which mill job, usually given to the youngest children, does little Rachel take?

Doffer was the job of swapping full bobbins for empty ones on the spinning frames. Real doffers worked only about fifteen minutes in each hour and could play in a corner in between.

In Lyddie, what does Lyddie empty over Mr. Marsden when she finds him cornering her friend?

A bucket of water, kept on the weaving floor in case of fire, comes down over the overseer's bald head, bucket and all. Lyddie then grabs her friend's hand and the two of them run for it.

In Lyddie, which charge does Mr. Marsden use to have Lyddie dismissed from the mill?

Moral turpitude means vile or shameful character, and the overseer falls back on it because he can find no fault with her work. A dishonorable discharge meant no other mill in town would hire her.

In Lyddie, whom does Lyddie threaten to tell everything if Mr. Marsden has her Irish friend fired?

His wife is the threat that works: Lyddie writes two letters, one for the overseer and one addressed to her, to be posted only if the first fails. She waits outside his house to hand him his copy.

In Lyddie, where do Uncle Judah and Aunt Clarissa send Mama when they can no longer care for her?

An asylum takes her in, and Judah means to sell the family farm to pay for her care. The real Brattleboro asylum of the day was a reforming one that set out to cure its patients, not simply contain them.

In Lyddie, who writes to Lyddie in Lowell asking her to come home and marry him?

Luke Stevens, the neighbor's son, writes that his father has bought her family's farm and that he does not want to live on the land without her. Lyddie tears the letter up and burns the pieces.

Which Ohio college, a pioneer in admitting women, does Lyddie set her heart on as Lyddie closes?

Oberlin had taught women alongside men from its founding and was among the first American colleges to admit Black students. Lyddie first hears of it from Betsy, who was saving her mill wages to study there.

Which novel by the author of Lyddie, about two friends and an imaginary kingdom, was filmed in 2007?

Bridge to Terabithia grew out of a real loss: a friend of the author's young son was struck and killed by lightning. That son later helped write and produce the 2007 screen version.

In Lyddie, which crowded Irish neighborhood of Lowell is home to Lyddie's workmate?

The Acre was a real district that grew up around an Irish Catholic parish, kept apart from the mill boardinghouses by hostility toward Catholics and foreigners. Lyddie walks there to say goodbye.

In Lyddie, which family, the millers who take Charlie on as an apprentice, offer Rachel a home?

The Phinneys treat Charlie as one of the family and want a daughter too, so he comes by train to fetch Rachel. Lyddie lets her go to get her away from the mill air that has started her coughing.

Which newspaper of the Female Labor Reform Association does Betsy urge Lyddie to read in Lyddie?

Voice of Industry began as a workingman's paper in Fitchburg before moving to Lowell, where the mill women's union took it over. It ran from 1845 to 1848 and also took up women's rights and the abolition of slavery.