Street Child
Unforgettable tale of an orphan in Victorian London, based on the boy whose plight inspired Dr Barnardo to found his famous children’s homes.When his mother dies, Jim Jarvis is left all alone in London. He is sent to the workhouse but quickly escapes, choosing a hard life on the streets of the city over the confines of the workhouse walls.Struggling to survive, Jim finally finds some friends… only to be snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe.Will Jim ever manage to be free?
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First published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton
First published by HarperCollins Childrenâs Books 1995
This edition published by HarperCollins Childrenâs Books 2016
HarperCollins Childrenâs Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
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The HarperCollins Childrenâs Books website address is
Berlie Dohertyâs website address is
Text copyright © Berlie Doherty 1993
Why Youâll Love This Book copyright © Julia Golding 2009
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
Cover illustration © Giodarno Poloni 2016
Berlie Doherty asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007311255
Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780007397631
Version: 2016-06-14
For Hilda Cotterill
With thanks to the children of Lynne Healyâs class at Dobcroft Junior School in Sheffield, who helped me with their advice and enthusiasm, and to Priscilla Hodgson, Deborah Walters, Mike Higginbottom, the Barnardo Library, Dickens House, The Ellesmere Port Boat Museum and Sheffield Libraries, who all helped me with their knowledge.
CONTENTS
Copyright
Why Youâll Love This Book by Julia Golding
Tell me Your Story, Jim
Chapter One â The Shilling Pie
Chapter Two â The Stick Man
Chapter Three â Rosie and Judd
Chapter Four â The Workhouse
Chapter Five â Behind Bars
Chapter Six â Tip
Chapter Seven â The Wild Thing
Chapter Eight â The Carpet-Beaters
Chapter Nine â The Jaw of the Iron Dog
Chapter Ten â Lame Betsy
Chapter Eleven â The Spitting Crow
Chapter Twelve â Shrimps
Chapter Thirteen â The Lily
Chapter Fourteen â The Watermanâs Arms
Chapter Fifteen â Josh
Chapter Sixteen â Boy in Pain
Chapter Seventeen â The Monster Weeps
Chapter Eighteen â You Can Do It, Bruvver
Chapter Nineteen â Away
Chapter Twenty â The Green Caravan
Chapter Twenty-One â Circus Boy
Chapter Twenty-Two â On the Run Again
Chapter Twenty-Threeâ Shrimps Again
Chapter Twenty-Four â Looking for a Doctor
Chapter Twenty-Five â The Ragged School
Chapter Twenty-Six â Goodbye, Bruvver
Chapter Twenty-Seven â Barnie
The End of the Story
More Than a Story
About the Author
By the same author
About the Publisher
It couldâve been you â that might be the slogan on the movie poster if this story of an ordinary boy up against impossible odds was put on to the big screen. Street Child does something quite extraordinary. It dissolves the gap between just reading about the poverty in Victorian London and makes you live it. This is no dry history lesson, but an adventure into the dark underbelly of those times. Within these pages, you will find monsters and heroes, comedy and tragedy, all set against the backdrop of the scary docklands of London. As I read Berlie Dohertyâs brilliant and moving book, I was constantly challenged. How would I have fared if I had been left an orphan with no money or friends to help me? Where would I have gone for love and help? What would you have done?
This is the crushing fate that the main character, Jim Jarvis, faces when his mother dies. He journeys through the horrors of the workhouse, finds brief happiness in a fragile existence helping a street seller and comes to a state close to slavery working on a coal boat where he is treated worse than his masterâs dog. The book is full of vivid characters, some of whom could be plucked from a horror novel: Grimy Nick and his dog Snipe, Shrimps, the boy named for the toes showing through the end of his boots, the glittering but treacherous Juglini circus troupe. Acts of kindness â a hug from a woman in the workhouse, Rosieâs care for Jim, Josh on the Newcastle collier ship, the boys tending to a dying friend â these are rare moments that shine out from the darkness like diamonds in a shovel of coal.
But what really works is that you canât help but fall in behind Jim, rooting for him to find a way out of the traps continually sprung on him. Heâs not sweet â donât expect an angelic Oliver Twist waiting for rescue. Heâs a child of the streets with all the savvy that goes with that hard life. But youâll feel for his overwhelming loneliness and when finally â thankfully â someone listens to his story, youâll want to cheer.
