In a novel told in the dulcet tones of Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, Valerie Hobbs (The Last Best Days of Summer) relates the story of orphaned 10-year-old Maggie and a stray pup named Oliver.
Young Maggie's exuberance gets the better of her, and she loses her position as a maid in turn-of-the-20th-century Boston. Even though she must live on the streets, she counts her blessings: a coat, boots, a crust of bread and a locket containing a mysterious woman's photograph. Oliver, a scruffy little dog, simultaneously becomes homeless when his owner dies.
Maggie and Oliver's separate journeys unfold in alternating chapters, but both girl and dog share a kind and irrepressible nature. Maggie briefly finds a job in a sweatshop before getting the boot without pay when child labor authorities catch on. Oliver receives a tasty handout from a fisherman, but later gets captured by a brutish restaurant owner and almost becomes dog stew. Each struggles with cold and starvation until they meet one day in the park and their paths unite. Maggie takes up with a boy, Daniel, who teaches Maggie some unsavory lessons, such as retrieving scraps from dumpsters, while using her for his own dubious plots. He hatches a plan that would fill their bellies, but could also get Maggie in serious trouble. It's Daniel, however, who inadvertently helps solve the riddle of the locket and brings to fruition Maggie and Oliver's destiny.
Jennifer Thermes's drawings, reminiscent of Lois Lenski's work, compliment this classic-feeling novel that is by turns harrowing and uplifting. --Bette Wendell-Branco, bookseller emeritus and reviewer