Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845 to 1850. FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people.Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland.Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It’s the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it’s also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature
The potato famine that struck Ireland 150 years ago was so devastating to the country that its effects are still being felt today. In a well-organized and balanced approach, Bartoletti provides the historical, political, economic and scientific reasons for this catastrophic event. Her text relies upon the words of those who experienced the famine and memoirs of their children who heard the stories from their parents. Carefully selected illustrations from journals of the period further enhance one's understanding. Each chapter is aptly introduced with an Irish saying, song, blessing or literary quote that ties in perfectly with the topic. Altogether, it is a riveting look at Irish history. A timeline (from 1845 to 1998) in the back of the book highlights the major events and gives the census reports for deaths and emigration during this five year period, which together took over 3 million people from Ireland. The author provides a bibliography and sources for her work with commentary on their content. This is a must for library collections and for individuals interested in Irish history. 2001, Houghton Mifflin, $18.00. Ages 9 to 14. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo
VOYA
The mass suffering and death caused by the Irish Potato Famine can make for painful reading. Bartoletti avoids sensationalizing and lets the facts and the people speak for themselves. She examines the causes of the famine, considering the roles of both the potato blight and of social conditions in mid-nineteenth century Ireland. She notes the efforts of such people as Robert Peel, who had little success in his efforts to find creative solutions for the famine, and artist James Mahony, whose sketches and articles helped to generate donations and support from England and beyond. Even more memorable are the numerous people whose first-person accounts convey the hope and despair of human beings faced with life-threatening hardship. Dozens of black-and-white illustrations support the text. Because many are from newspapers of the day, they help to show how visual images gradually raised public concern in England. With chapter titles taken from excerpts within the text—"Lend Me a Little Reliefe"—and rhymes, quotations, and traditional Irish blessings opening most chapters, the book draws the reader into the time and place described. More than five pages of source notes indicate the depth of the author's research and give the reader some insight into a historian's world. Readers will find plenty of jaw-dropping statistics that indicate the devastating effect of the famine—nearly a quarter of a million deaths in 1847, according to census reports—but the impact on ordinary people will stick with them even more powerfully. Illus. Source Notes. VOYA CODES:5Q 2P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written;For the YA with a special interest in the subject;Middle School,defined as grades 6 to 8;Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9;Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2001, Houghton Mifflin, 160p, $18. Ages 11 to 18. Reviewer:Steven Engelfried—VOYA, December 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 5)
School Library Journal
Gr 6-10-When most American teens talk about hunger, it's that growling sensation before meals. Famine is beyond their ken, an abstraction made only marginally concrete by TV images of the Third World. In the Irish potato famine of 1845-50, it was Europeans starving to death, and the impact on Ireland (one million dead, two million fled) and on the U.S. was staggering (those immigrants came here). The chronology of the disaster unfolds in this gruelingly poignant text that draws heavily on news reports and first-person narratives. Bartoletti's title also incorporates period pen-and-ink sketches and poetry laying bare the fragility, injustice, and stratification of Irish peasant society that could not cope with agricultural tumult. People lived on potatoes-and only potatoes-while growing profitable exports for British landlords. When the crops mysteriously failed repeatedly over the next five years, the peasants simply starved to death while the social structure of the society nearly died along with the populace. Relief efforts were brutally incompetent where they existed at all, and only the Quakers emerge as heroes of mercy. The bibliography (also narrative) provides some of the most fascinating historical reading in the book. Overall, a useful addition to collections, for both personal and research uses.-Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Using illustrations from mid-19th-century newspapers and stories of people actually involved, Bartoletti has written a fascinating account of a terrible time. In the Great Irish Famine, one million people died from starvation and disease, and two million fled to other countries after a fungus destroyed the potato crop, a disaster in a country where six million farm laborers depended on that one crop. Bartoletti's sure storytelling instincts put the reader in the midst of the drama. Though the layout is dense and uninviting (in galley form), the stories make the narrative memorable. Bridget O'Donnel, sick and seven months pregnant, is evicted from her cabin. "Spectre-like" crowds of walking skeletons in Skibbereen on market day see shops full of food they can't afford to buy. British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel's determination to persuade the government to help is thwarted by laissez-faire economic policies and religious and ethnic prejudice. This is history "through the eyes and memories of the Irish people," and it is history that's meant to instruct. In her conclusion and extensive bibliography, Bartoletti steps back from her narrative to encourage readers to respond to the hunger, poverty, and human suffering in our own time. An illuminating discussion of the Great Irish Famine and how emigrants contributed to the growth of cities around the world. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
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