" 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...