Deborah Hopkinson

For years Dick­ens kept the sto­ry of his own child­hood a secret. Yet it is a sto­ry worth telling. For it helps us remem­ber how much we all might lose when a child’s dreams don’t come true … As a child, Dick­ens was forced to live on his own and work long hours in a rat-infest­ed black­ing fac­to­ry. Read­ers will be drawn into the wind­ing streets of Lon­don, where they will learn how Dick­ens got the inspi­ra­tion for many of his char­ac­ters. We cel­e­brat­ed Dick­ens’ 200th birth­day on Feb­ru­ary 7, 2012. This tale of his lit­tle-known boy­hood is the per­fect way to intro­duce kids to the great author. Here is his­tor­i­cal fic­tion at its inge­nious best.