The Lost Boy

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

School of the Dead

Loyalty

The End of the World and Beyond (Oliver Cromwell Pitts)

Poppy and Ereth (Poppy, 7)

Gold Rush Girl

Sophia's War: A Tale of the Revolution

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. 

Discover Your Child's Next Read

The Lost Boy

Greg Ruth, 2013

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Avi, 2002

School of the Dead

Avi, 2016

Loyalty

Avi, 2022

The End of the World and Beyond (Oliver Cromwell Pitts)

Avi, 2019

Poppy and Ereth (Poppy, 7)

Avi, Brian Floca, 2009

Gold Rush Girl

Avi, 2020

Sophia's War: A Tale of the Revolution

Avi, 2012