In Coal Country

By Judith Hendershot
Illustrated by Thomas B. Allen

"Christmas in the row was the best time of the year. The house smelled of Christmas tree and roast goose and all the good things that Mama had made. No whistle called Papa to the mine. Everything felt so special. And it was."

Judith Hendershot grew up in the family of a coal miner. She and her family lived on Company Row, containing many families whose fathers all worked for the local coal mine. Hendershot writes of her father with pride. She terms his work, "important." The descriptive language immediately enhances the story as the reader learns just how dark and dirty the environment was. Hendershot writes that she and the other children only received a bath once every Saturday, yet her father needed a bath every night. This black fog was so insidious that it peeled the paint away from the home. The process of coal transportation is then detailed from the mules to the trains. Each element of transportation is clouded with the black dust of coal. "The water than washed the coal ran back into the creek, and the dust from the coal turned it black as night." This theme of night is echoed in the next several pages. Hendershot describes her relationships with her friends who also lived in coal mining houses. Their antics occurred during the nighttime, while her father was at work. Washing clothes was especially hard for Hendershot's mother, who developed calloused and red hands from working with clothing in the washer. The only reprieve for the family occurred in sync with Christmas.

The imagery is incredibly powerful, as illustrated by Thomas B. Allen. Interestingly, Allen uses pastels to illustrate the story. Pastel, like charcoal, is very malleable. When a mark is made with pastels, a dust is created on the surface. This dust can then be manipulated with the artists finger to create a smudge of color. Pastels therefore resemble the dust of coal. When the color black appears on the pages, coal is indisputably referenced. Several two-paged spreads depict life during the nighttime. These pages are successful at truly arresting the viewer's perspective while hinting at the blackness of coal. The artists handling of color almost appears hyper stylized on page 24, when Allen depicts an image of the family garden. The green and bright blue imagery seems impossible in such a dark environment. Allen handles this by creating a layering effect with patterns of chromatic, intense colors with darker, subtle tones.

My mother and father were both born and raised in Norton Virginia, which is located in Southwest Virgina. When they grew up there, Norton was a coal-mining town. My father's first job after he graduated from UVA asked him to return home to manage a coal mining team. My mother has often described leaving church on a Sunday morning only to find a layer of dust on the car windowshield. This imagery was racing through my head was I was reading Hendershot's text. The intensity of coal production is further amplified by the wonderful illustrations by Allen. A wonderful read that ties coal production to early 20th century American identity, In Coal Country is an entertaining tale of blue collar society.