The Great Molasses Flood: Boston, 1919 [Paperback]

A strange and sticky piece of history. January 15, 1919, started off as a normal day in Boston’s North End. Workers took a break for lunch, children played in the park, trains made trips between North and South Stations. Then all of a sudden a large tank of molasses exploded, sending shards of metal hundreds of feet away, collapsing buildings, and coating the harborfront community with a thick layer of sticky-sweet sludge. Deborah Kops takes the reader through this bizarre and relatively unknown disaster, including the cleanup and court proceedings that followed. What happened? Why did the tank explode? Many people died or were injured in the accident—who was to blame? Kops focuses on several individuals involved in the events of that day, creating a more personal look at this terrible tragedy.Deborah Kops is the author of more than a dozen nonfiction children’s books, including ZACHARY TAYLOR: AMERICA'S 12TH PRESIDENT, SCHOLASTIC KID'S ALMANAC, and her Wild Birds of Prey series. She lives in Westford, Massachusetts.Of all the disasters that have occurred in the United States, the Great Molasses Flood in Boston was one of the most bizarre. Imagine a city neighborhood awash in molasses: that dark brown, sweet-and-sour liquid that sticks to everything like honey—the same stuff that makes gingerbread men taste so good.
            It sounds like a bad joke. But as the people of Boston discovered on January 15, 1919, a dark, rushing wave of molasses can be as destructive as a tornado.
            The people who lived along the narrow, hilly streets of Boston’s North End and worked on the nearby waterfront were not expecting a disaster. In fact, they thought life in Boston was getting better.
            The city’s battle with a terrible disease had just ended. In l“�