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Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 Paperback – May 2, 2005

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 720 ratings
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2002 Sibert Medal Winner

In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people.

Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland.
Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It’s the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it’s also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    10 - 12 years
  2. Print length
    192 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    5 - 7
  5. Lexile measure
    1040L
  6. Dimensions
    7.5 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  7. Publisher
    Clarion Books
  8. Publication date
    May 2, 2005
  9. ISBN-10
    0618548831
  10. ISBN-13
    978-0618548835
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bartoletti humanizes the big events by bringing the readers up close to the lives of ordinary people." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

“Bartoletti incorporates period pen-and-ink sketches and poetry laying bare the fragility, injustice, and stratification of Irish peasant society. . . . Fascinating historical reading.” —School Library Journal, starred review School Library Journal, Starred —

About the Author

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal. She lives in Moscow, Pennsylvania.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarion Books; Reprint edition (May 2, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0618548831
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0618548835
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 - 12 years
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1040L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 5 - 7
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 720 ratings

About the author

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Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

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Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor-winning nonfiction book, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow and its acclaimed companion novel based on a true story, The Boy Who Dared. She lives in northeastern Pennsylvania. Learn more at her web site, www.SusanCampbellBartoletti.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
720 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Isabel Gnippitto
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Read and Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2013
Verified Purchase
I just finished reading Black Potatoes and I loved it! It was easy to read and kept me turning the pages, which is a lot to say about a book about an Irish Potato Famine. I'm not a history buff or a lover of Ireland or anything. This author just did a really good job making a potentially dry subject into a fascinating one.

I bought the book because the Look Inside on amazon was interesting and easy to read. What you see in the Look Inside is a good idea of what the entire book is like.

I am planning on homeschooling and I wanted to get the book for that. I think it would be great for maybe middle school, but I plan to start earlier and reading it aloud.

Some parts are very sad, especially about the hunger, but the author also highlights positive things, like the brother who gave a whole loaf of bread to his little brother self-lessly.

It paints England as helping, but also worrying about their bottom line. They almost begrudgingly give Ireland help because they think they brought it on themselves or that the Irish should pay the brunt of it. But they do give money, not that it helps much. It seems that people who are not the poorest of the poor, do not quite understand exactly how bad things are for them. For example, when a man was trying to rally an army, he told them to get 3 days worth of bread and biscuits and didn't understand why many didn't come back. They didn't have 3 days worth of food.

It seemed like the poorest class was the worst off, with the middle and upper classes doing better. The troubles for the landlords was not as much income, whereas the troubles for the laborers was not having food to eat. This book mainly focused on the worst conditions, painting the landlords mostly as heartless for putting the poor out of their houses.

Overall, it gives a good history and makes me feel like I understand a little bit more about the world.
2 people found this helpful
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Doris Maniti
4.0 out of 5 stars From a high school student's perspective
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2013
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I am a high school student who did a research project on the Potato Famine. Although I am not a big fan of non-fiction books, I really enjoyed reading Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine because it gave thoughtful insight on how the Irish people suffered from the British government's neglect from 1845-1850. It was intriguing to see how Bartoletti was able to incorporate stories passed down to the descendants of those who had lived through the Irish Potato Famine. Although it would have been helpful to have been given the effect it had on those of the upper class, it gave very adequate perspectives of those in the poverty-stricken areas of Ireland. Reading this book for hours on end made me feel as if I had been living through the famine myself, that is, excluding the feeling of starvation. Being a very descriptive book, the majority of it was quite sad, but some disturbing details included those who had been buried alive. One of the most touching parts was reading about the half-naked women who had suffered through the cold attempting to pick leftover turnips for their starving children who devoured them raw. Bartoletti sufficiently states that this famine could have been prevented because as Ireland continued to export goods, their own people were dying of starvation by the millions. In all, I highly recommend Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine to those studying world history because it is very informative and easy to understand.
14 people found this helpful
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irondad
5.0 out of 5 stars A quick and very interesting read
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2015
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From the moment I got it I was addicted. I started reading it when I laid down to sleep in the morning since I work the night shift.I lost out on two hours of sleep before I finally decided I had to put it down and get some sleep. Very well written and informative. I like that the author also went into a discussion about the prior history between Ireland and Britain. I am a lot more understanding of the IRA after reading this book (not that I condone what they do today, I am just saying i get some of the reasoning). Understanding the Irish potato famine is why I bought this book and it does a very good job of explaining what happened without going into useless details that could have made it a 5 or 600 page book.
8 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and informative
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is an excellent book. Susan Bartoletti presented the information about the Irish Potato Famine in a coherent and very readable way. Although the book was written for young people I found it to be a good read for all ages.
2 people found this helpful
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Sierra W.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and informative!
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
A wonderful and thorough resource for learning about the Irish Potato Famine
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Elizabeth du Fresne
4.0 out of 5 stars A Concise Guide to the Great Irish Potato Blight/Famine of 1846-1850
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
Growing up in a family of full Irish descent on both parents backgrounds (and with one of the 3 great grandparents who lived with us, my maternal great grandfather Mathew (Matty) Manmohan having come from Ireland at the time of the Troubles (1917), I was no stranger to stories of the Famine. Nonetheless, the impact of this book and its concentration of stories, anecdotes, news articals, and historical sketches and documents, was powerful and dramatic. The ability to treat starvation of a majority of a nation's populous as first an economic problem whose possible paths for relief were inconsistent with England's policy of laissez fair - and thus one nation's leadership simply makes decision to allow over a million Irish people to die of starvation, malnourishment and the diseases that ravish malnourished folk - to say nothing of encouraging the diaspora of 2 - 2 1/2 million people (where again approximate 15-20℅ of the steerage passengers died during the voyage).is shocking to read about, much less realize most of your ancestors were personally affectd by these policies and events. And when they arrived in America, Canada, England and Australia they were met with NINA ( No Irish Need Apply) it is a history lesson important to learn from.
2 people found this helpful
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Ms. Poe
3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Overview
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2021
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BLACK POTATOES is a fairly comprehensive summary of the Great Hunger in the mid-eighteen hundreds. Most effective is the use of contemporary writings and illustrations to tell the story. Less effective is the tendency to downplay England's political agenda to rid Ireland of the Irish by the most expedient means. Also, the preachy tone of the last few paragraphs didn't seem to Bevin keeping with the studied neutral tone of the rest of the book.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

AJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, intertesting
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2021
Verified Purchase
an amazingly constructed book of facts turned into interesting g reading.
One person found this helpful
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LM
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2021
Verified Purchase
Bought as a gift for my Mum whose family came from Ireland during the potato famine. She's really enjoyed reading it, and we're all waiting for a turn to borrow it.
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L. B.
1.0 out of 5 stars Maybe for the sketches?
Reviewed in France on August 28, 2014
Verified Purchase
Not worth the money spent on it. It is NOT a history book and is clearly meant for a general audience that wouldn't be too demanding. It even contains mistakes (for instance Lamartine wasn't "the new French president" in March 1848 - he was the head of the government, was actually defeated at the following presidential election, gave up politics and therefore never became president). The reader learns very little - if he learns anything or isn't t given false information.
2 people found this helpful
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C.J.
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
Lot of good information in this little book. We've all heard of the Irish potato famine, but did we really know when it happened or what it was all about and the causes? This book fills in a lot of the spaces without going into a lot of deeper,boring stuff. Nicely illustrated throughout. Would recommend to anyone of Irish ancestry and wanting to know a little more of their background.
One person found this helpful
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Pony Moores
4.0 out of 5 stars A very good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
An excellent piece of work and very well researched. Excellent illustrations of the day with careful editting to take the reader to those difficult and extremely sad years.
Suitable for all ages/people who have an interest in lrish history. If l have one criticism, it was at times very anti-English. I understand that many if the British Govt. were guilty of atrocious crimes against humanity, but the poor people in England were hardly any better off.
Nevertheless, l would recommend this book, which is beautifully presented.
2 people found this helpful
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