Everything's in ashes

Ashes of Roses ~ by Mary Jane Auch, 2002, YA historical fiction, 256 pages

The story of a young girl's newfound independence, from her entrance into a new country to her frightening involvement in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911.  Here's a quote from page 9:

       My heart filled with fear and hope at the same time. I had the feeling that I was brought to America for a purpose. Something important would happen to me here.

       I remembered the words of the poem, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."  Well, we were poor, all right, and after two weeks crammed into the bottom of a boat with Joseph screamin' his fool head off, we certainly qualified as tired, huddled masses.

       "Here we are, America," I whispered. "We're just exactly what you ordered."

When she arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, Rose Nolan is looking for a land of opportunities.  After part of her family is sent back to Ireland, unable to set foot on American soil, she is left to fend for herself and her younger sister.  She finds work at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the 1911 fire in which 146 employees died.  Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up even though she is left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister.  Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work.

When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 upends Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head.  To whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?

This book qualifies for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.