Canary girls : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Rosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own in New York Times bestselling novelist Jennifer Chiaverini's lively and illuminating novel about the "munitionettes" who built bombs in Britain's arsenals during World War I, risking their lives for the war effort and discovering camaraderie and courage on the soccer pitch.

Early in the Great War, men left Britain's factories in droves to enlist. Struggling to keep up production, arsenals hired women to build the weapons the military urgently needed. "Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun," the recruitment posters beckoned.

Thousands of women--cooks, maids, shopgirls, and housewives--answered their nation's call. These "munitionettes" worked grueling shifts often seven days a week, handling TNT and other explosives with little protective gear.

Among them is nineteen-year-old former housemaid April Tipton. Impressed by her friend Marjorie's descriptions of higher wages, plentiful meals, and comfortable lodgings, she takes a job at Thornshire Arsenal near London, filling shells in the Danger Building--difficult, dangerous, and absolutely essential work.

Joining them is Lucy Dempsey, wife of Daniel Dempsey, Olympic gold medalist and star forward of Tottenham Hotspur. With Daniel away serving in the Footballers' Battalion, Lucy resolves to do her bit to hasten the end of the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballer's wife, they invite her to join the arsenal ladies' football club, the Thornshire Canaries.

The Canaries soon acquire an unexpected fan in the boss's wife, Helen Purcell, who is deeply troubled by reports that Danger Building workers suffer from serious, unexplained illnesses. One common symptom, the lurid yellow hue of their skin, earns them the nickname "canary girls." Suspecting a connection between the canary girls' maladies and the chemicals they handle, Helen joins the arsenal administration as their staunchest, though often unappreciated, advocate.

The football pitch is the one place where class distinctions and fears for their men fall away. As the war grinds on and tragedy takes its toll, the Canary Girls persist despite the dangers, proud to serve, determined to outlive the war and rejoice in victory and peace.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Chiaverini (Resistance Women) adds to the glut of revisionist war stories featuring strong women characters with a serviceable if overlong tale focused on England during WWI, where women were encouraged to take jobs in industry and agriculture. Former suffragette Helen Purcell marries an industrialist who converts his family's sewing machine manufacturer into a munitions factory. Poor young April Tipton, tired of the grueling work of a housemaid, learns she can make a better wage in a factory. Lucy Dempsey's famous footballer husband is away with the English Footballers' Battalion. All three women converge at Purcell's arsenal, where April and Lucy work as "munitionettes" in the Danger Building filling fuse caps with yellow TNT powder. Soon, their skin turns yellow, earning them the nickname "canary girls" but also giving them chest pain, coughs, and vomiting. Helen, with her clout as the boss's wife, becomes the factory's welfare supervisor to monitor the girls' health. Meanwhile, Lucy helps organize a factory football team, a welcome distraction. Though Chiaverini takes too long establishing the characters, she succeeds at immersing readers in 1914 London, with convincing details of munitions manufacturing, stark class disparities, patriotic duty, and soccer matches. Those willing to go the distance will root for these indomitable women. Agent: Maria Massie, Massie & McQuilkin. (July)

Booklist Review

The prolific Chiaverini (Switchboard Soldiers, 2022) focuses on Britain's munitionettes, women employed in ammunition plants during WWI. Their working conditions were hazardous not only because were they handling explosives but also because the TNT powder they packed into shells was highly toxic, causing an array of health problems, including the yellow-tinted skin that earned them the nickname, canary girls. Alarmed by their symptoms, the munitionettes at the Thornshire Arsenal fight for better working conditions and recognition of their contributions to the war effort with the support of the boss' wife, a suffragette turned welfare supervisor and advocate. After their grueling shifts, munitionettes from all walks of life find camaraderie on the football pitch, eventually competing against teams from arsenals around the country in the Munitionettes League. But as the war draws to a close and the soldiers return, will there still be room for them in the factories and on the pitch? Chiaverini blends elements of A League of Their Own and The Radium Girls to shed light on a group of women whose wartime sacrifices are not widely known.

Kirkus Book Review

A group of female munitions workers become friends and soccer teammates in Great Britain during World War I. In 1915, April Tipton, a 19-year-old housemaid, follows her best friend, Marjorie, to London to work in one of the "Danger Buildings" at a munitions factory--a job that pays nearly 30 times as much as her old position, offering the ability for the women to support not only themselves, but their families. While it's known to be dangerous work because of the chance that the bombs will explode, the poisonousness of the TNT the women work with won't be fully realized until late in the war even though from the beginning it turned the workers' skin yellow and discolored their hair--thus earning them the nickname canary girls. Helen Purcell, daughter of an Oxford professor, has married into the family that owns the factory. Determined to do her part for the war effort, she begins working at the factory as a welfare supervisor for the workers who are increasingly obviously being poisoned, advocating for the women to her husband, Arthur, who runs the arsenal. Lucy Dempsey--who's married to Daniel, an Olympic gold medalist--turned--professional soccer player now enlisted as a soldier--begins working at the factory to support the war effort and to earn enough money so she doesn't lose her family's home. Each of the women finds her way to the Thornshire Canaries, the soccer team for the arsenal, and as the war progresses, the fan base for the soccer league of "munitionettes" grows ever larger. Chiaverini has written a sprawling, ambitious story: It's part a play-by-play recounting of the Canaries' soccer games against munitionette teams from across Britain, part a history lesson about the life-altering work undertaken by women determined to be "The Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun" regardless of the risk to their own lives, and part a story of the emotional highs and lows of the women carrying on as best they could during the war years. The good, the bad, and the ugly sides of war on the homefront are highlighted in this uplifting story. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jennifer Chiaverini is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago. She used to be a writing instructor at Penn State University and Edgewood College. She is the author of the Elm Creek Quilts series and four volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels. She is also the designer of the Elm Creek Quilts fabric lines from Red Rooster Fabrics. Among her most recent works, is the New York Times bestselling novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.

(Publisher Provided)