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

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Street Child is my bestselling novel based on the story of Jim Jarvis, who alerted Dr Barnardo to the plight of destitute children in Victorian London. After escaping from a workhouse, his adventures and hardships finally led him to attend a Ragged School, where Barnardo asked him for his story. Jim’s story begins with his family. His mother is ill and unemployed. Without money they become homeless. She can no longer care for Jim and his two sisters so she visits an old friend looking for someone to take in the girls. When his mother collapses in the street, young Jim Is scared. They are taken to the workhouse where his mother soon dies. Life in the workhouse is brutal and Jim dreams of escaping. He would prefer to try to survive alone on the cold London streets rather than live in the harsh and heartless conditions of the workhouse. I really liked the book. I like reading about orphans, and I really liked this story about Jim! What makes this book about an orphan a little more special is that Jim is not in an orphan house. It depends on the day where he sleeps and eats. There are also books where the main character is in an orphan house. The book is mostly situated there. Rosie was very kind. She gave Jim's sister's a home when she could lose her job for it. She helped Jim when he had no one nowhere. I like Rosie A LOT. Now she's an example of a good character.

ANo. I don’t even know London very well, let alone the London of nearly two hundred years ago! I walked round the streets of London and along the river Thames, read a lot, took photographs, and tried to imagine it all as it must have been a long time ago. That’s the writer’s job. I need to make myself familiar with the place where my stories are set, so it will seem familiar to the reader too. http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/search/search?search[query]=street+child&log=t&age_type=age_range&now=query&search[department_id]=&x=0&y=0 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.’ P42.A gripping book that doesn't shy away from the brutal reality of life for a lower class Victorian child. There are some topics about death that may have to be dealt with more carefully. Best suited for upper KS2. Potential entry text for more challenging texts such as Oliver Twist or David Copperfield that children may experience at secondary school. Good for those studying Victorians, or even looking at Dr Barnardo. In Street Child, Jim tells Dr Barnardo his life story. But he couldn’t possibly tell it all in one go, or Dr Barnardo would have fallen asleep! 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). So, as you read each chapter, I suggest you summarise it in just a few sentences. Jim was like all the other ragged children. Street Child is based on the true story of Jim Jarvis, a young boy who is left to survive on his own on the harsh streets of Victorian London after his mother dies. He is taken in by the compassionate Dr Thomas Barnardo. The play tells a story of bereavement, compassion and a young boy’s attempt to survive in a cruel world.

I read this story with a year five class over the course of three weeks. The children were captivated by Jim’s plight and were eager to continue reading to the end. Most of the children were able to sympathise with Jim after considering their own lives and comparing that to the life of Jim. There were sensitive issues in the story, such as Jim losing his mother and being evicted from his home, and these had to be dealt with delicately. An excellent piece of historical fiction showcasing the struggles of an orphan child trying to survive alone in merciless Victorian London. After his mother dies Jim is flung from one extreme of deprivation to another. Forced into the Workhouse and then unwillingly sold for child labour; at first it seems to be cruel adults that rest at the root of Jim’s suffering. As time progresses, the system of privilege being prioritized over the poor becomes more apparent. It was warming to see the glimmers of kindness shining within those who may not be so fortunate themselves. Homelessness is the central topic of this grim and gripping novel set in Victorian England, with its snootily authentic atmosphere. But who was Dr Barnardo, what did he achieve in his work with children and young people,, and what is his continuing significance? A Not yet, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was one! Street Child and Far From Home could be sequel films, or the lives of Jim, Emily and Lizzie could be wound together into one film. I can just imagine it!See currently unavailable books See my books that are unfortunately currently out of print, and also not currently available as ebooks or audiobooks. AHard to say. Church charities were more alert to the problems of girls on the streets than they were of boys, so they might well have been taken in to an existing Home and possibly put into service when they were older. Later, Barnardo found a way of including girls in his Homes. Otherwise, I think it may have been the workhouse for them. In Far From Home I try to imagine what might have happened to Emily and Lizzie.

A Emily and Lizzie’s journey is very different from Jim’s. I’ve told their story in the companion book to Street Child, called Far From Home: The Sisters of Street Child.

street child is a very sad book but nice ending my very favourie charater is tip because he is very out going and talkitive

Read the first few paragraphs. How does the author convey Jim and his mother’s struggle? Which phrases emphasise this? Is his mother really just asleep? Predict her fate.BRILL! TRUE AND A VERY SAD STORY SET IN THE 1860'S! Looking forward to finding out what happens next! In the short space of forty years, starting without patronage or influence of any kind, this man had raised the sum of three and a quarter million pounds sterling, established a network of Homes of various kinds such as never existed before for the reception, care and training of homeless, needy and afflicted children, and had rescued no fewer than sixty thousand destitute boys and girls. Notice how the descriptions and pace alter from noise, voices and movement before Jim enters the workhouse, to silent images and slow actions once inside. Provide headings: Sights; Sounds; Actions; Feelings; and find descriptions for each aspect. Parenthesis is a word, phrase or clause inserted into a sentence to add extra information. When parenthesis is removed, the sentence still makes sense on its own. I stopped reading about workhouses and orphanages long ago. They always give me the creeps. I always feel like giving up but honestly, I've never given up on such books. So I read it. And I finished it.