The Miner's Cap — Ann N. Black

The shouts grew louder on top of ear-splitting sounds of metal and iron banging and scraping. As they rounded the corner of the mine head, Pa gasped at the sight ahead, and Joe's heart began to pound like crazy. The miners' strike had turned nasty. Instantly, he began to worry. What about Mama and his little sister? Would they be safe? And what about that new girl from Wales, Moira? Did that Company kid, Arnie, have anything to do with this? No answers--now. Somehow, they had to walk on.

Tensions mount past the breaking point in Ann N. Black's poignant book for young people, The Miner's Cap. Based on true events surrounding the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, it tells of one boy's desperate search for hope in the aftermath of the devastation that follows.

Joe Mantonio, the thirteen-year-old son of Italian immigrants, works alongside his father in the in the mines near Ludlow, Colorado. When the poorly treated workers decide to strike, the company retaliates by forcing them and their families out of their homes and into tents.

After months of strife, the battle culminates in a savage massacre -- one that sees soldiers who had been hired to protect the workers killing them instead. Joe and his family are caught in the crossfire of this horrific battle that ultimately devastates the entire tent colony.