City of Orphans

Emmeline read City of Orphans by Avi for her book club at school and highly recommended it to me. It’s the story of 13-year-old newsie named Maks who lives in New York in 1893. Maks’s family—immigrants from Denmark—are tight on money and rely on Maks to earn a share each day. When the Plug Ugly gang start going after him, a girl named Willa helps him fight—and the two become friends just as a new crisis comes to his family: His sister Emma, who works at the Waldorf Hotel, was accused of stealing and put in prison. It’s up to Maks to find a way to find a way to save Emma.

This was a great read. I was engaged from the start, but once I got further into it, I couldn’t stop reading and had to stay up to finish. It was a captivating story with great characters. Emmeline considered the book one of the top books she’s ever read.

Rating: * * * (3/3 = Loved it)