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Summary
Summary
The streets of 1893 New York are full of life: crowded, filthy, dangerous. If you are a newsboy like thirteen-year- old Maks Geless, you need to watch out for Bruno, leader of the Plug Ugly Gang whose shadowy, sinister boss is plotting to take control of all the newsies on the lower East Side. With Bruno's boys in fierce pursuit, Maks discovers Willa, a strange girl who lives alone in an alley. It is she, stick in hand, who fights off the Plug Uglies--but further dangers await. Maks must find a way to free his sister Emma from The Tombs, the city jail where she has been imprisoned for stealing a watch at the glamorous new Waldorf Hotel. Maks, believing her innocent, has only four days to prove it. Fortunately, there is Bartleby Donck, the eccentric lawyer (among other employments) to guide Maks and Willa in the art of detection. Against a backdrop alive with the sights and sounds of tenement New York, Maks, as boy detective, must confront a teeming world of wealth and crime, while struggling against powerful forces threatening new immigrants and the fabric of family love.
Author Notes
Avi was born in 1937, in the city of New York and raised in Brooklyn. He began his writing career as a playwright, and didn't start writing childrens books until he had kids of his own.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirteen-year-old Maks Geless, the oldest son of Danish immigrants, makes eight cents a day hawking The World on Manhattan street corners in 1893. Newbery Medalist Avi tells his story in a vibrant, unsophisticated, present-tense voice (a typical chapter begins, "Okay, now it's the next day-Tuesday"), and it's a hard life. Maks's sister Agnes has TB, the shoe factory where Agnes and Mr. Geless work is suspending operations, and the grocer and landlord want their accounts paid. Then Maks's oldest sister, Emma, is accused of stealing from a guest at the Waldorf Hotel, where she is a maid. Amid this strife, the good-hearted Gelesses take in Willa, a homeless girl who saved Maks from a street gang. Maks and Willa must prove Emma's innocence, with the help of an odd, possibly dying detective (he's coughing up blood, too). The contrasts among Maks's family's squalid tenement existence; Emma's incarceration in the Tombs, the city's infamous prison; and the splendor of the Waldorf bring a stark portrait of 19th-century society to a terrifically exciting read, with Ruth's fine pencil portraits adding to the overall appeal. Ages 10-14. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Times are hard in 1893 New York City. The Lower East Side is like "the cheapest boardinghouse in Babel" -- crowded tenements and sidewalks packed with curb-stalls, handcarts, and peddlers selling their wares in dozens of languages. Thirteen-year-old Maks Geless hawks newspapers for The World for eight cents a day, but things are not right in his world. The Plug Ugly Gang has been roughing up the newsies; Maks's sister Agnes seems to have the "wasting disease," or tuberculosis; sister Emma has been arrested for theft and jailed in The Tombs; and his father is about to lose his job at the shoe factory. Author Avi is at home in the nineteenth century (The Traitors' Gate, rev. 9/07) and creates a Dickensian cast of characters, including dying detective Bartleby Donck, who helps Maks as his "farewell gift to this doomed city"; Mr. Packwood, the house detective at the glamorous Waldorf Hotel; Willa, an orphan girl who meets Maks when sh rescues him from the Plug Uglies; and the mysterious Mr. Brunswick. But this is not Victorian England: the prose is as fast paced, muscular, and informal (sometimes to a fault) as a sports column in The World. Careful attention to setting, plenty of action, a mystery of comfortable complexity (with coincidences worthy of Great Expectations), and a personable, streetwise omniscient narrator make this a gratifying adventure. Readers will root for Maks and Willa, understanding Papa when he says, "These are hard times, but good things can still happen." dean schneider (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Dickensian street action comes to New York's Lower East Side in this gripping story, set in 1893, about newsboy Maks, 13, who feels hungry twenty-five hours a day. After rescuing a filthy, homeless girl, Willa, Maks takes her to the crowded tenement he shares with his struggling Danish immigrant family. Pursued by Bruno, the leader of the Plug Ugly street gang, Maks is desperate to save his sister, Emma, who was imprisoned after being falsely accused of stealing a watch from the Waldorf Hotel, where she worked as a cleaner. Just as compelling as the fast-moving plot's twists and turns is the story's social realism, brought home by the contrasts between the overcrowded, unsanitary slums (No water, gas, electricity) and the luxurious Waldorf. Then there are the unspeakable conditions in prison, where, even as a prisoner, Emma must pay for food. Avi writes in an immediate, third-person, present-tense voice, mostly from Maks' colloquial viewpoint (He's full of heartache, but no one is seeing it), with occasional switches to Willa and to the young gangster leader. Threading together the drama are tense mysteries: Is Willa really an orphan? Who stole the watch? Pair this riveting historical novel with Linda Granfield's 97 Orchard Street, New York: Stories of Immigrant Life (2001), a nonfiction account of Lower East Side tenements.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
IMAGINE the difficulty of creating an active crime-fighting protagonist in an age of helicopter parents. Far better to set a book 100-odd years in the past, when 12-year-olds. didn't have curfews or receive parental cellphone calls every five minutes. Now there a writer can have some fun! Approaching this era with strangely similar notions are the longtime children's author and Newbery Award winner Avi and the adult-science-fiction writer and Philip K. Dick Award-winner Chris Moriarty. Like two sides of the same coin, both their books delve into the grime and sweat of a booming Manhattan and the intense role even a young hero could have in shaping its history. "City of Orphans" proves the more traditional of the two. When Maks Geless, 13-year-old New York City newsboy, is saved from a savage gang by a stick-wielding girl named Willa, the pair strike up a friendship. They are then thrust into the center of a mystery when Maks's beloved older sister Emma is accused of theft by her employer, the Waldorf Hotel. Inspired by the era's penny dreadfuls, Maks seeks out a dying private detective to help him discover the true thief. Narrating in the present tense, Avi attempts a colloquial, first-person "Lemme tell you how it was" style not normally found in books for middle graders. The opening, which describes Maks so vividly you feel that he's standing right in front of you, strikes the kind of friendly note bound to draw in the average reader. "Now, this Maks, he's regular height for a 13-year-old, ruddy-faced, shaggy brown hair, always wearing a cloth cap, canvas jacket and trousers, plus decent boots." In short, he's a "newsie." Yet at times the voice feels off, with a contemporary tone at odds with the period. Strange coincidences also strain the reader's credulity, particularly in the ties between Maks, Willa and their enemies. Nonetheless, honest-to-goodness historical mysteries are hard to find, and Avi doles out his clues carefully, allowing children the chance to feel smart if they put two and two together. Compare now Avi's boy protagonist, stick-wielding female sidekick, turn-of-the-previous-century New York setting and eccentric detective with Moriarty's boy protagonist, baseball bat-wielding female sidekick, old New York backdrop and eccentric authority figure. The two books clearly mirror each other, though it's "The Inquisitor's Apprentice" that dares to conjure magic. A seemingly average kid on the Lower East Side, Sacha Kessler has the rare gift of seeing spells. In a world where each ethnic group has its own magical traditions and inquisitors serve as regulators, Sacha is swiftly snapped up by the police and apprenticed to Inquisitor Maximillian Wolf, an eccentric, misleadingly mild fellow. Joined by another apprentice, the heiress Lily Astral, they set out to uncover the truth behind the attempted murder of Thomas Edison. Avi sees no need to mention the religion of his Danish and German immigrant characters. Moriarty, by contrast, not only makes religion central to the story, but mixes it with magic. Generally speaking, children's book authors have three ways of treating religion in a fantasy novel. They can do without it entirely, they can include religion but not base it on real beliefs or, rarest of all, they can use real religions alongside fictional magic (and not in some allegorical "the lion is actually Jesus" fashion either). Opting for the last, Moriarty successfully mixes Judaism with spells, throwing in allusions to race relations for spice. SHE also sucks you into the life of the city, making it viscerally real. Avi's book may evoke New York's sights and smells, but Moriarty makes these elements breathe. Yet while New York is rendered in evocative splendor, Sacha proves a somewhat passive protagonist, never really using those abilities that got him his job in the first place. And Moriarty twists the narrative into any number of pretzel-like positions to keep her hero from doing the logical thing and confessing his troubles to his friends and allies. This is where the book is least believable. That said, between the evil dybbuk on Sacha's trail and the machinations of the powerful J. P. Morgaunt few readers will mind these lapses. "People are freer in America. But there are more tears," says Maks's mother in "City of Orphans." Children are freer too, or they were. Free to run the streets dodging gangs and taking mysteries into their own hands. Where today we see negligence, authors spy opportunity. And for today's readers, finding themselves caught beneath the omnipresent, not to say suffocating, love and attention of their hovering parents, reading about children free to go anywhere and to solve crimes, not to say their own problems, may offer them the escape they understandably crave. Elizabeth Bird is a children's librarian with the Children's Center at 42nd Street, part of the New York Public Library. She blogs at A Fuse #8 Production.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Times are tough for most families in New York City in 1893, and Maks's family is no exception. They live in a tenement building with almost 200 other people and everyone in the family contributes to paying the rent. Maks is a "newsie," standing on the corner every afternoon selling copies of The World, "the world's greatest newspaper." When the local Plug Uglies gang tries to rob Maks, he's saved by a resilient homeless girl named Willa. Thankful, Maks brings her home and soon she becomes part of their family. Maks and Willa band together to help prove that Maks's sister, falsely accused of stealing in the fancy Waldorf Hotel, is freed from prison. With the help of a private detective, they connect the theft to a small-time mobster, who happens to be Willa's deadbeat father. With his youthful tones and lively narration, Chris Sorenson does a wonderful job of narrating Avi's historical novel (Atheneum, 2012). The period details come to life, enticing listeners to learn more about the tenements and the rich upper class living in New York City just before the turn of the century. Maks's ingenuity and Willa's bravery shine through this tale of danger and intrigue. For all library collections.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An immigrant family tries to survive crime, poverty and corruption in 1893 New York City.Earning enough money to cover the rent and basic needs in this year of economic panic is an endless struggle for every member of the family. Every penny counts, even the eight cents daily profit 13-year-old Maks earns by selling newspapers. Maks also must cope with violent attacks by a street gang and its vicious leader, who in turn is being manipulated by someone even more powerful. Now Maks' sister has been wrongly arrested for stealing a watch at her job in the glamorous Waldorf Hotel and is in the notorious Tombs prison awaiting trial. How will they prove her innocence? Maks finds help and friendship from Willa, a homeless street urchin, and Bartleby Donck, an eccentric lawyer. Avi's vivid recreation of the sights and sounds of that time and place is spot on, masterfully weaving accurate historical details with Maks' experiences as he encounters the city of sunshine and shadow. An omniscient narrator speaks directly to readers, establishing an immediacy that allows them to feel the characters' fears and worries and hopes.Heroic deeds, narrow escapes, dastardly villains, amazing coincidences and a family rich in love and hope are all part of an intricate and endlessly entertaining adventure. Terrific! (author's note, bibliography)(Historical fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
1 Amazing things happen. Look at someone on the street and you might never see that person again-- ever. Then you bump into a stranger and your whole life changes-- forever . See what I'm saying? It's all 'bout them words: "luck," "chance," "coincidence," "accident," "quirk," "miracle," plus a lot of words I'm guessing I don't even know. But the thing is, I got a story that could use all them words. 'Bout a kid by the name of Maks Geless. That's Maks, with a k . M-a-k-s. Now, this Maks, he's regular height for a thirteen-year-old, ruddy-faced, shaggy brown hair, always wearing a cloth cap, canvas jacket, and trousers, plus decent boots. He's a newsboy--what they call a "newsie." So he's holding up a copy of the New York City newspaper The World ,andhe'sshouting, "Extra! Extra! Read all 'bout it! 'Murder at the Waldorf. Terrible Struggle with a Crazy Man! Two Men Killed!' Read it in The World ! The world's greatest newspaper. Just two cents!" Now, not everything gets into the papers, right? But see, the only one who knows what really happened up at the Waldorf is . . . Maks. You're thinking, how could this kid--this newsie--know? I'll tell you. This story starts on Monday, October 9, 1893. That's five days before the day of that headline you just heard. It's early evening, the night getting nippy. Electric streetlamps just starting to glow. In other words, the long workday is winking. Not for Maks. He's still on his regular corner, Hester Street and the Bowery. Been peddling The World for five hours and has sold thirty-nine papers. Sell one more and he'll have bailed his whole bundle. Do that and he'll have eighty cents in his pocket. Now listen hard, 'cause this is important. In 1893 newsies buy their papers and then sell 'em. So next day's bundle is gonna cost Maks seventy-two cents. Then he sells 'em for two cents each. Means, for his five hours' work, he'll earn a whole eight cents. Not much, you say? Hey, these days, six cents buys you a can of pork and beans, enough eats for a day, which is more than some people gets. You're probably thinking, eight pennies--that ain't hardly worth working all them hours. But this is 1893. These are hard times. Factories closing. Workers laid off. Not many jobs. Housing not easy to find. Fact, people are calling these days the "Great Panic of 1893." And the thing is, Maks's family's rent is due this week. Fifteen bucks! For them, that's huge. All I'm saying is, Maks's family needs him to earn his share, which is--you guessed it--eight cents a day. Now, most days when Maks finishes selling his papers, he likes staying in the neighborhood to see how his newsie pals have done. Don't forget, this is New York City. The Lower East Side. Something always happening. This night all Maks wants to do is to get home and eat. No surprise; he's hungry twenty-five hours a day, eight days a week. And last time he ate was breakfast--a roll and a bowl of coffee-milk. So Maks holds up his last newspaper and gives it his best bark: "Extra! Extra! Read all 'bout it! 'Joe Gorker, Political Boss, Accused of Stealing Millions from City! Trial Date Set! Others Arrested!' Read it in The World ! World's greatest newspaper. Just two cents! Only two cents!" Sure, sometimes crying headlines, Maks gets to head doodling that someday he'll be in the paper for doing something great, like maybe making a flying machine. So The World would pop his picture on its first page, like this here mug Joe Gorker. Then Maks reminds himself that his job is selling the news, not being it. Besides, The World is always laying down lines 'bout Joe Gorker, screaming that the guy is a grifter-grafter so crooked that he could pass for a pretzel. Anyway, Maks's shout works 'cause next moment, a fancy gent--top hat, handlebar mustache, starched white collar, what some people call a "swell stiff" -- wags a finger at him. Maks runs over. The guy shows a nickel. "Got change, kid?" "Sorry, sir. No, sir." I know: Maks may be my hero, but he ain't no saint. Like I told you, for him, pennies are big. Needs all he can get. "Fine," says the swell. "Keep the change." "Thank you, sir!" Maks says as he slings his last sheet to this guy. The guy walks off, reading the headlines. Maks, telling himself his day is done, pops the nickel into his pocket. Except no sooner does he do that than who does he see? He sees Bruno. This Bruno is one serious nasty fella. Taller than Maks by a head, his face is sprinkled with peach fuzz, greasy red hair flopping over his eyes, one of which is squinty, and on his head he's got a tipped-back brown derby, which makes his ears stick out like cute cauliflowers. But the thing is, Bruno may be only seventeen years old, but he's head of the Plug Ugly Gang. Lately, Bruno and his gang have been slamming World newsies, beating 'em up, stealing their money, burning their papers. So Maks knows if Bruno is giving him the eye, things gonna be bad. And it's not just 'bout being robbed. If Maks loses his money, he ain't gonna be able to buy papers for next day. No papers, no more money and the family rent don't get paid. In other words, no choice. Maks has to get home with his money. Trouble is, his home is a three-room tenement flat over to Birmingham Street, near the East River. That's fifteen big blocks away, which, right now, feels as far as the North Pole. In other words, if Maks wants to keep his money, he's gonna have to either outrun that Plug Ugly or fight him. Don't know 'bout you, but Maks would rather run. © 2011 Avi Wortis Excerpted from City of Orphans by Avi All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
