Parents' Guide to The Pecan Sheller

THE PECAN SHELLER begins in January 1937. Petra Navarro lives with her stepmother, who she calls Amá, and her younger brother and sister in San Antonio, Texas. Since her father's death four months ago, the family's struggling. Their ice box is almost empty and they're low on oil for their lamps and logs for the wood stove. The only solution, Amá tells Petra, is for her to leave school and go to work with her at a pecan shelling factory. Petra's devastated, as she has big dreams for her future, but realizes leaving school is the only way to help her family. Work at the factory (for between six and seven cents an hour) is grueling and as the workers aren't allowed to open the windows, they constantly inhale fine clouds of what can be lethal pecan dust. After their wages are cut, Amá's fired for being "too slow," and Petra's friend Ofelia begins to cough up blood from breathing in the dust, she challenges the factory manager and is immediately fired. Determined to help make a change, Petra joins the workers striking for fair wages and the right to form a union. The story does have a real life happy ending, as the workers are allowed to unionize and a new federal law makes factory owners increase their wages to 25 cents an hour. Because of the bravery and perseverance of the strikers, the fictional Petra returns to school and her dream of becoming a writer.