Summary: Fifteen-year-old Annie goes to work at a woolen mill because she is determined to pay off her father's debts. Into this early 1800's setting, mix a despised boss, a murder and a mystery, and the result is a plot that moves along briskly.

Level: Grades 5-8.

Theme:Determination
.................Industrialization

Activities and Discussion Questions:

1. Identify various biographical sources that will tell you about the Collier Brothers. How old were they when they wrote their most popular books? If you have read other books by these authors (such as Bloody Country or My Brother Sam is Dead), do you think these authors have changed their life philosophy or world view over the years? Back up your views with specifics.

2. The Clock was written by two authors who are brothers.

a. Use the library to identify other books written by two or more authors.
b. By reading The Clock or other jointly written novels, can you tell which author wrote which part? Does the style change?
c. Experiment with writing a story with another student or group. How will you divide the work? Try one story where you do not communicate except through the writing itself and one where you collaborate throughout. Which do you prefer?

3. The concept of time is very important in this novel and mass-produced clocks are a new invention. Experiment in your classroom with dividing your day without using the clock. Research the history of time pieces to determine how and why they were first invented. Are there other ways to determine the "time" of day? Experiment with using these.

4. The Clock contains several "modern" themes such as child abuse, sexual deviance, etc. Research in the library to find out what you can about childhood during this time period. How were children treated in general? What were their roles in the family? Find some statistics that tell about the average size of families, income, etc. to help you determine whether or not the characters and setting were accurately portrayed in the book. What might have been the cause of child abuse during this time (i.e. different view of children in society)?

5. Let's talk about the Industrial Revolution. For the mill owner the safety of the workers is unimportant and the children seem to have no rights. Research Child Labor Law to see when and why these laws were passed. How long did it take to recognize the need for them? Relate this to Call Me Ruth and Lyddie or a century later steel mill in Good-bye, Billy Radish. Try to compare this with the situation in other countries throughout the world. Does child labor still exist?

6. Annie's father was a man who liked new things and new ideas. Even though he endangered his family's financial welfare and forced Annie to work in the mill, he wanted his family to experience new ideas and inventions. Identify some things in our own time which are similar to the clock for the Steeles. Write about how these inventions could or have changed how we think or act. What kinds of inventions in the future will have as much impact as the clock? Participate in the Invention Convention project and try to invent a new and useful product. (See the activity guide for Almost Famous by David Getz in Maine Sampler Part III.)

7. Research the history of invention to determine what other important changes happened at the same time as the mass-produced clock. When was the clock originally invented and by whom? What would happen if you left out one of these inventions? How are they related? Write a science fiction story in which one major tool or product in our society suddenly no longer exists or was never invented.

8. Check the historic accuracy of the mill described in the book. Compare it with the mill in Mercy's Mill by Betty Levin or with David Macaulay's Mill. Build a working or static model of a water mill. Research how water wheels were or could have been made safe enough so that the accident described in The Clock would not have happened.

Bibliography:

Bender, Lionel. Invention, Knopf, 1991. (Eyewitness, p.22, 24)

Bosse, Malcolm. Captives of Time, Delacorte, 1987.
(medieval setting, building of a town clock, mature scenes)

DeBono, Edward. Eureka! An Illustrated History of Invention. Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1974.

Goudsmit, Samuel A. Time. Time-Life, 1980.

Langdon, William Chauncy. Everyday Things in American Life 1776-1876. Scribner's, 1941.

Levin, Betty. Mercy's Mill. Greenwillow, 1992.

Macaulay, David. Mill. Houghton Mifflin, 1983.

Neal, Harry Edward. From Spinning Wheel to Spacecraft: The Story of the Industrial Revolution. Messner, 1964.

Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. Lodestar, 1991.

Petroski, Henry. The Evolution of Useful Things. Knopf, 1992.

Sachs, Marilyn. Call Me Ruth. Doubleday, 1982. (The daughter of a Russian immigrant family, newly arrived in Manhattan in 1908, has conflicting feelings about her mother's increasingly radical union involvement)

Skurzynski, Gloria. Good-bye, Billy Radish. Bradbury Press, 1992. (In 1917, as the United States enters World War I, ten-year-old Hank sees change all around him in his western Pennsylvania steel mill town.)

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver. Houghton Mifflin, 1983. (A boy's father leaves him with "important" inventions which turn out to be useless for his survival.)

Zubrowski, Bernie. Clocks: Building and Experimenting with Model Timepieces. Illus. by Roy Doty. A Boston Children's Museum Activity Book. Morrow Jr., 1988.

Films

Ben's Mill - Shows the operation of an historic water-driven mill in New England

Newsies - Disney film on the newsboy strike in New York City which paved the way for Child Labor Laws at the turn of the century.

Sins of Our Mothers - Depicts the life of women workers in Ameri in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Prepared by Debe Averill, Library Coordinator, Bangor School Dept. (with Abigail Garthwait, Asa Adams School , Orono)

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