Bowery Girl

Children's Literature

Life in the 1880s Fourth Ward was tougher than many of us can imagine. Kim Taylor is a talented author who takes us into this filthy, crumbling, poverty-stricken part of New York City through the eyes of Mollie Flynn and Annabelle Lee. The girls only have each other as they fight for survival in the only ways that they know. Annabelle is a prostitute who unintentionally becomes pregnant, and Mollie has the dangerous job of a professional pickpocket. They are both always dirty, hungry, and cold. Their bleak situation makes Mollie bitter, but Annabelle dares to dream for a better life. Emmeline DuPre is a rich, prissy "do-gooder" who offers the girls an education and a chance to turn their lives around. After a lifetime of abuse and despair, do the girls have the vision and willpower to try to change? This book offers a realistic look at human endurance despite desperate conditions. It addresses adult themes and contains language that is not suited for young readers. Mature young adults, however, will finish this book with a new appreciation for their modern lifestyle. 2006, Viking/Penguin Group, Ages 16 up.
—Denise Daley

VOYA

Mollie, a sixteen-year-old pickpocket, and her friend, Annabelle, a whore, dream of escaping New York City's 1883 Bowery. They plan to cross the new Brooklyn Bridge, build decent lives far from hungry rats, the dead horse rotting on the corner, raw drink mixed with "camphor, benzene, and God knew what," and the brutal fights between rival Irish gangs that so engross their feckless boyfriends. Mollie's fingers are not as quick as they once were, but she is literate; Brooklyn can mean honest employment. Annabelle is illiterate; whoring is all she knows, and she is pregnant by her boyfriend, loves him and wants marriage. But to support a child she will need a job, so she enrolls in Settlement House literacy classes. Mollie scorns the "do-gooders" there, thinking it better that Annabelle contribute to their Brooklyn nest egg. But Mollie loves Annabelle, and keeping her company, begins typing classes. Both girls edge toward a better life, but schooling means less time on the streets. Desperate for rent money, Mollie joins a gang burglary, and when it goes awry, there is a killing. Annabelle clashes with the do-gooders, quits classes, prepares to marry her boyfriend, abandon dreams of Brooklyn, and Mollie knows, throw her life away. But what is Brooklyn for Mollie without Annabelle? Taylor evokes the grit, smells, poverty, desperation, hope, and even the good times of the Bowery to perfection. Her characters, like her setting, are complex. It is impossible not to pull for them. This novel is not just fine historical fiction; it is also splendid writing with mega teen appeal, as close a "must-have" for any collection as this reviewer can imagine. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it beingany better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Viking, 288p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Mary E. Heslin

Judith A. Hayn

Inspired by Jacob Riis's study of tenement life in late 19th century New York, How the Other Half Lives, Taylor creates a fascinating story of friendship between two young women. The na‹ve, youthful pickpocket Mollie Flynn and her protector, the flamboyant, indomitable prostitute Annabelle Lee, survive through their wits, courage, and cunning on the streets of 1883 Manhattan. The grimness, poverty, and hardship of life without a permanent home are graphically vivid, while descriptions of their lives are realistically harsh as Mollie and Annabelle struggle with gang violence, rat pit fights, robbery, and harassment from many sources. Their chance encounter with Emmeline DuPre, who has just opened the Cherry Street Settlement House, offers opportunity and hope. The lure of the street, however, always tempts as both seek their dream of a new life waiting just over the newly constructed Brooklyn Bridge. Mollie and Annabelle could be two homeless young women anywhere in the world today, but their story from more than a century ago informs and inspires.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Pickpocket Mollie Flynn and prostitute Annabelle Lee are struggling to survive in New York City in the late 1880s, where they witness the unforgiving sights and smells of the tenements. The story opens as Annabelle is released from jail, and Mollie finds out that her friend is pregnant. The baby's father is only interested in how much money Annabelle can earn for him. When the girls meet Miss DuPre, who runs a settlement house, she gives them a chance to be educated and learn a trade. Their lives slowly change but when the well-intentioned woman informs Annabelle that there is a family interested in adopting her baby, the two friends vehemently reject the idea and return to the streets. The harsh language and dialect are contextually appropriate, and the young women's desire for a better life but inability to achieve it comes through clearly. The story explores the lack of opportunities available to women in the 19th century while describing the start of social programs to teach skills that would enable disadvantaged individuals to provide for themselves and their families.-Kelly Czarnecki, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg, NC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Mollie and Annabelle-both orphans, one a pickpocket, the other a prostitute-share a windowless tenement room, meager rations and a sense of desperation in the Bowery of New York City, 1833. They bathe at the Cherry Street Settlement House and harbor futile dreams of crossing the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge into a normal life and a new world. Their amorality reflects their grim existence, and their use of strong language and casual approach to sex may cause sensitive readers to blush. However, Mollie and Annabelle's interactions with everyone from boyfriends to shopkeepers depict with accuracy the contempt with which their society regarded women of their social class. A potential savior arises in Miss DuPre, the "Do-Gooder" who founded the Settlement, but ultimately even her qualified altruism is unable to save the day. The tearjerker ending is saved from trite sentimentality by Mollie's no-nonsense narration. She and Annabelle refuse to pity themselves, and their fierce determination to make it lends credence to the millions of historical and contemporary girls who dared to dream in the face of extraordinary challenges. (Historical fiction. YA)