Book: City of Orphans

Author: Avi

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Count: 355

Maks, a newsie, makes 8 cents a day to contribute to his family. Both his older sisters and his father work to help keep their family afloat. But when his oldest sister, Emma, got arrested for a suspected theft, their boat starts to wobble. Willa has been living on the streets for six months, and when she saves Maks from the local street gang, his family took her in, and Maks dragged her into the mystery of Emma’s supposed theft.

I read this book for The Gilded Age time period of U. S history. I thought this book showed what it was like for an immigrant family to live in New York. Many people were in the same situation as them, and not many people could hire you, since they were all lacking in money. I also learned about how unfair some working conditions were. For example, at a shoe factory, workers were paid by the number of shoes they made. Sometimes, it would close for weeks on end because the workers were making more shoes than the factory could sell.

My favorite character was Willa, because of her fierce attitude. I liked how each person seemed to have a unique dialect and accent, because most of them were from different places. I also enjoyed the element of mystery to this book.

The one thing that was a little confusing was the narrator. It was written in Maks’s dialect, but it was 3rd person so I wasn’t really sure who they were supposed to be.

If you like historical fiction or mysteries I think you should read this book.