Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Scholastic Inc.
Pages
317
Description
A twelve-year-old street urchin and the son of Chicago's most important jeweler strike up an unlikely friendship in the days before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and both are nearly trapped when the city goes up in flames.
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
317 p.; 7.6 inches
ISBN
0545390737 / 9780545390736
Similar in this library
Pie by Sarah Weeks
Media reviews
Two worlds collide when 12-year-old Poppy, a skilled pickpocket working the streets of 1870s Chicago, meets 13-year-old Justin Butterworth, a prominent jeweler’s son. Justin’s sister warns, “Be careful. . . . You don’t know where this friendship with Poppy might lead you.” Yet with the
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help of Justin’s goat, Ticktock, he and Poppy soon become friends. Neither character has it easy: Justin is jealous of his older brother, Charlie, the next in line to run their father’s business, and Poppy’s “caretaker,” a Fagin-like character, forces Poppy to make a wax impression of the key to the Butterworth’s store in hopes of robbing it. Narrated in alternating chapters by both Poppy and Justin, the story follows their struggles and ends with their suspenseful escape from the Great Chicago Fire. Although the dialogue doesn’t always ring true, and the situations occasionally seem contrived, Harlow has done her research about the details of the fire and effectively touches on class issues and the economic disparity of the time. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Bwestpha
This chapter book is about a little girl who is a pick pocketer, she lives with a few other orphaned girls and they go out everyday and get money for their "mother." After awhile she meets a little boy who is the son of a jeweler, they become friends and she gets invited to his house. She is
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welcomed with loving arms, somethings she isn't used to, they are kind to her and super sweet. But when the son messes up on an order at the store, the father instantly blames the girl saying she stole it. She runs away and the little boy tries to find her but has no luck. The chicago fires start up and everyone is forced to evacuate their houses, she runs to their house to try to find them, she saves their kitty and some jewels from the jewelry store. After getting trampled on she manages to get far enough and finds the boy and his family. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sonya.Contreras
Face paced, character driven, my boys begged to finish it.
Provided suspense, tragedy, historical detail, and life from both sides of the tracks.
Provided suspense, tragedy, historical detail, and life from both sides of the tracks.
Awards
Nēnē Award (Nominee — 2014)
Call number
J4E.Har