Maggie & Oliver or a Bone of One's Own

September 15, 2011

In 1905 Boston, a 10-year-old orphan finds herself on the streets (with a mysterious golden locket), as does a just-orphaned dog, in this heartwarming story about a search for home under rough conditions.

Maggie has unruly, curly brown hair, round blue eyes and a penchant for asking questions; in fact, she is dismissed from Madame Dinglebush's employ as a housekeeper for "insolence" and "disobedience" when she inadvertently responds to the visiting Duchess of Landsaway's smile. Simultaneously Oliver, a "brown dog with hair like a scrub brush," is searching for his beloved long-time owner Bertie via his acute sense of smell; an early chapter is aptly titled "The Nose Knows." Hobbs (The Last Best Days of Summer, 2010, etc.) places her plucky protagonists in a Dickensian world in which both are freezing (it's March and snowing), hungry, exhausted and in constant danger. Maggie finds backbreaking work in a shirtwaist factory "bereft of human speech" run by a Mr. Speak, and Oliver (called Lucky by Maggie) is almost made into dog-meat stew. The author deftly utilizes the techniques of literary serialization in her 32 short chapters, and young readers will eagerly turn the pages to find out what happens next. Thermes' black-and-white illustrations quietly match both tone and period.

A touching and emotionally satisfying foundling tale. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011

Gr 4-6-Maggie and Oliver live parallel lives in early-20th-century Boston. Oliver is a mutt whose cozy home is abruptly taken away after his owner dies. Ten-year-old Maggie's job as a maid ends when she steps out of line by speaking to the visiting Duchess of Landsaway. She is cast out with nothing more promising than a golden locket that reveals a mysterious picture. In alternating chapters, the story focuses on each character's efforts to survive amid ever-present hunger and frigid weather. Underage Maggie goes to work in a shirtwaist factory where she endures inhumane conditions and a cruel boss. There she befriends Daniel, a street-smart youngster who shows her the ropes. Meanwhile, Oliver goes searching for his owner, whom he believes is still alive. He encounters a few good samaritans, but many other people are not so kind. He eventually finds himself locked in a lonely, cold kitchen where he is expected to be a ratter or else. Threaded through the chapters are chance meetings between Maggie, Oliver, and the duchess. This is mainly a warm story about friendship, but it's also an introduction to the treatment of children and animals in the early 1900s. Thermes's illustrations bring needed lightness to the difficulties and call to mind artists of that era. The ending is predictable but satisfying.-Diane McCabe, Loyola Village Elementary School, Los Angeles

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2011
Grades 3-6 Few opening chapters are as heart-wrenching as this one, in which scruffy mutt Oliver tries to rouse his beloved elderly owner, only to discover that she will not wake. A long black car takes her away and movers come to pack up her every worldly possession, leaving confused Oliver behind. From here Oliver's story only becomes bleaker. Fueled by his nagging hunger, he takes to the cold streets, eating garbage and searching for his departed owner. Meanwhile, orphan Maggie doesn't fare much better. She is put out of her servile job as a housemaid to survive on the streets of Boston at the turn of the twentieth century. Pinning her hopes to a mysterious locket she wears around her neck, and the scruffy mutt that she calls Lucky, Maggie desperately wants to find a warm, comfortable home for herself and the dog. Readers who can weather the abject sadness of the first half of the novel will be rewarded by a much more optimistic ending about survival and friendship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)