DEAR CANADA Mill Girl

This book's title makes you think it's going to be horrible and depressing, but it's not. The diary is mostly focused on the people Flora knows and what she experiences. I don't even know if 10% of it is written about the mill.

The main effect of the mill has nothing to do with child labor and instead has her uncle losing fingers in a mill accident. He's basically an ass after that until Flora and her aunt concoct a scheme, writing to the uncle's brother, who then writes him, pretending not to know of his injury and asking for help on his farm out in British Columbia. At the end of the book, they decide move.

That's not saying this isn't a good read. It is. It's just very often not about working in a mill at all, which should kind of be the point, I think. You get the sense that the mill is dangerous and kids shouldn't be working there, but at the same time, it's presented as a necessary evil, and Flora even pulls a trick to keep her job. Days of Toil and Tears are not what's presented by the majority of the story at all.