Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel. Historical fiction about child labor and the dangerous work in mines.

This is the story of Emma, who returns to her home town, a small mining town in PA, that she left as a child. She is now 19, orphaned and has no money and nowhere else to go. Her relatives who take her in are well-to-do, but treat Emma as if she were one of their servants. She takes a job in the company store in hopes of saving money and escaping the miserable small town. 

While working in the company store, she discovers just how badly the mining company treats its workers, paying very little wages, risking their safety, and forcing them to pay inflated prices for goods at the only store around, which is owned by the mine company. Treated especially bad are the "breaker boys". They are young children who work in the mines for very little pay, usually because their fathers have been killed or injured in the dangerous mines. These children, close to starving and covered in soot, also have dangerous jobs and are often maimed or killed themselves.

Emma's heart breaks for these children and she begins helping these children and their families by leaving food on their porches and erasing their debts in the books of the store. 

However, this causes even more problems and more danger for anyone who goes against the mine leader. She befriends these families and decides that she must fight to save the poverty ridden workers who risk their lives daily just to put food on the table.