Annie is a sympathetic heroine, and the cook and coachman are villainous enough to sustain some reader interest, but opportunistic plot turns and small details left dangling detract from the suspense, and the "all's well" ending is predictable. Rescued by an African-American family who runs a boarding house and takes in laundry, the youngster is befriended by their daughter and remains determined to find her brother and the violin. All too soon, however, this less-than-idyllic existence is cut short as first Thomas runs away and then Annie is pushed out, on the cook's trumped-up charge of stealing. Bridget, who is employed by a wealthy family, puts Annie to work for the joyless housemaid Thomas is assigned to the abusive coachman. As they land in New York, a thief makes off with her possessions. In the 1840s, the poverty at home is extreme, so the 12-year-old and her younger brother Thomas are sent to their sister Bridget in America, leaving their mother and other siblings behind but taking their deceased father's valuable fiddle with them. Gr 4-6-Whether in Ireland, aboard ship, or in New York, Annie's life is hard.
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