Street Child (Essential Modern Classics) (HarperCollins Children’s Modern Classics)

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So let’s pretend that you are Jim, sitting on a stool by a lovely warm fire, and you’re telling your story in real time (rather than novel time).

His commitment to social work strengthened - and on hearing Hudson Taylor speaking in Dublin about the work of the Inland China Mission, Barnardo believed his future lay in such work. In a book of short chapters that seem to take Jim from the misery of life at the workhouse through a series of wretched and brutal experiences, Berlie Doherty makes apparent the plight of street orphans in the Victorian era.His mother and brothers were already members of the Plymouth Bretheren - which Barnardo also joined. It was warming to see the glimmers of kindness shining within those who may not be so fortunate themselves. He worked on a coal lighter on the Thames, and ran away again because he was badly treated by the owner. It’s very hard for anyone of us to imagine what it must really be like to have nothing and nobody in the world.

He works tirelessly for a horrible man who stops Jim from running away by by tying a rope round his neck and having his dog keep guard. He was turned away from a Home because there was no room for him, and died on the streets, as did so many children.AI shared the first draft chapter by chapter as I was writing it with Dobcroft primary school, which my own children had attended when we lived in Sheffield. This book follows a young boy named Jim who is found homeless in London after the death of his mother.

What Jarvis told Barnardo about his life and the experiences of the other children had a profound effect. After the meal the man with the hanging head gave Jim a blanket and showed him a room full of shelves and long boxes where all the boys slept. Dr Barnardo felt so very bad for them and instead of the ragged school he made them a house to live in with warmth, clean clothes and even a nice place to sleep in.Berlie Doherty takes what little is known about the London urchin and child, Jim Jarvis, reputed to have inspired Dr Barnardo to set up his homes for destitute children, and weaves a riveting fictional account of his possible experiences. One of the stories associated with this period was of Barnardo's first encounters with the 'lays' around Petticoat Lane where children slept.