A Fall of Marigolds

By Susan Meissner
Lexile = ?

Do you know where you were when the twin towers fell in New York? Yeah, that's what I thought. Many of the students that I hope read this blog weren't even alive on September 11, 2001. It's ancient history. And, I bet none of you were alive on March 25, 1911, when then triangle shirtwaist fire killed 145 people in New York. Have you even heard of this tragedy?

A Fall of Marigolds expertly weaves these two New York disasters into one thoughtful, albeit fictional, account. Clara Wood is a nurse on Ellis Island in 1911. She exiled herself there after witnessing, and losing loved ones in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Manhattan. Ellis Island housed a hospital for quarantined immigrants. Clara becomes close to a particular immigrant whose wife died on the journey from England. His trunk contains a bit of a dilemma that entangles Clara and is passed down to 2001 and the attack in New York.

I'm not sure if this is a book intended for a high school library. Nothing inappropriate here; but its lack of Lexile ranking and the fact that this author is hard to find on "school" sites makes me wonder. But it is a book that I would like to share and pass on to readers of all ages. I think you will like it. And I'm buying it for Ridgeline.