Labor & Working Class Fables Series

Labor & Working Class Struggle

With love, these choices are for all ages, a blended real/imagined world, and labor & working class struggle. They are a powerful combination that they play right into my strengths as a port worker, storyteller, and community voice.

1. "The Last Crane Operator" — A Multigenerational Port Fable Set in a fictionalized version of the Port of Oakland where the cranes are alive — ancient iron giants with memories of every worker who ever climbed them. The story follows three generations of a Black longshoreman family: the grandfather who loaded ships by hand in the 1950s, the mother who broke barriers as the first woman mechanic on the waterfront in the '80s, and the grandson starting work today as automation threatens to replace the human workforce. The cranes narrate between chapters, remembering. It's part magical realism, part labor history, part love letter to the working class — accessible enough for a 10-year-old but deep enough for an adult to feel something real.

2. "Bridge Walkers" — An Allegorical Adventure In a world where cities are separated by enchanted bridges, a group of workers called Bridge Walkers are the only ones who can cross between worlds — carrying goods, stories, and medicine to communities on both sides. When a powerful corporation tries to build a toll gate that would cut off the poorest neighborhoods, a young Bridge Walker and her crew of dockworkers, healers, and elders must organize a resistance. It's a fantasy allegory for labor solidarity, gentrification, and community power — with Bay Area DNA running through every page.

3. "Graveyard Shift Academy" — A Working Class Youth Series A group of kids discover a hidden school beneath an old shipping yard that only opens at night. Each student is the child of essential workers — mechanics, nurses, bus drivers, warehouse workers, crane operators — and the academy teaches them skills their parents' labor made possible but society never recognized. Each book in the series follows a different kid and a different trade, blending adventure with real lessons about dignity, unions, and why working people matter. This is a full six-book series under Bysscott.org

The complete catalog — eight books: 

The Last Crane Operator — standalone novel 

Bridge Walkers — standalone novel 

GSA Book 1: The Night School Beneath the Yard (Origin Story)

GSA Book 2: The Engine Room (Miles) 

GSA Book 3: The Healing Ward (Esperanza) 

GSA Book 4: The Longest Route (Kwame) 

GSA Book 5: The Warehouse of Memory (Jin) 

GSA Book 6: The Last Lift (Aaliyah) 

Eight books. The bell is ringing.

1. The Last Crane Operator: A Multigenerational Port Fable. The book includes a Prologue, 12 chapters across four parts, three Crane Interludes narrated by Old Bess herself, and an Epilogue.

2. Bridge Walkers: An Allegorical Adventure — 16 chapters across five parts, plus a Legend prologue and Epilogue. The story follows Zuri, Kesi, Ama, Baba Kofi, and Dayo as they build the Iron Coalition to fight Meridian Corporation's toll gates on the living bridges.

Graveyard Shift Academy: A Working Class Youth Series.

3. Graveyard Shift Academy: Book One — The Night School Beneath the Yard — A group of kids — each one the child of an essential worker (mechanic, nurse, bus driver, warehouse worker, dock worker) — discover a hidden school beneath an old shipping yard that only opens at night. The academy teaches them skills rooted in their parents' trades, but elevated — part adventure, part trade education, part mystery about why the academy exists and who built it. Five kids: Miles (mechanic's son), Esperanza (nurse's daughter), Kwame (bus driver's son), Jin (warehouse worker's son), and Aaliyah (crane operator's daughter).

4. Graveyard Shift Academy Book Two: The Engine Room — Miles's story. Twenty chapters across five parts, featuring the Deep Engine, the Graveyard of Machines, the Mechanic's Manifesto, the introduction of new student Leo Trujillo (welder's son), and Miles taking the fight for worker safety to the port commission.

5. Graveyard Shift Academy Book Three: The Healing Ward — Esperanza's story. Twenty chapters across five parts, featuring the Deep Ward, the Body of Labor model, the Archive of Injuries, the Founders' Remedy from Mary Frances Cahill, new student Nia Jackson (paramedic's daughter), Sofia's breaking point, the Healer's Manifesto, and the launch of the Night Watch Clinic.

6. Graveyard Shift Academy Book Four: The Longest Route — Kwame's story. Twenty chapters across five parts, featuring the Living City model, the Archive of Routes, the ghost lines, new student Elijah Monroe (garbage man's son), Patricia Odoms's seventy-year-old transit plan, the Navigator's Manifesto, and the fight to save the 40 bus route.

7. Graveyard Shift Academy Book Five: The Warehouse of Memory — Jin's story. Twenty chapters across five parts, featuring the Deep Archive with the filing cabinet wall of voices, the Memory Engine, the Room of the Erased, new student Sonia Park (shipping clerk's daughter), Wei Chen's 3.2 performance score under a system that values speed over accuracy, Samuel Yun's personal ledger, the Counter's Manifesto, the fight to stop the digitization initiative from shredding seventy years of worker records, the Labor History Exhibition at the Oakland Public Library, and the Wall of Names with 4,200 recovered workers. Jin's central truth: to count something is to say it matters.

8. Graveyard Shift Academy Book Six: The Last Lift — Aaliyah's story and the grand finale of the series. The bell chamber, the wall of names, the founders' last gift, the fight against full automation, the Operator's Manifesto, new student Amara Osei (clerk's daughter), the workers' assembly, and the Academy's final lesson: You are the bell. Ring.