perhaps not useful, but Crowhugger's post triggered vague memories of books by Laurence Yep in sixth-grade reading classes; he's written several excellent children's/young adult books, mostly from the point of view of the children of Chinese immigrants working in the San Francisco laundries or on the railroads. There's one book where the narrator is working on the railroad with his father, and although I can't remember the title at all, I clearly remember several vivid scenes from it.

Chocolate Pi (who is lucky that this post didn't end up being about neuronal gap junctions, since she's been studying all afternoon and literally has brains on the brain)