genre: children's literature
Nan's life as a chimney sweet didn't start out traumatic. With her Sweep to care for her, she knew kindness and while she learned to work hard, climbing up flues and gathering soot in her soot bag, she fell asleep knowing she wasn't alone. Without Sweep, though, sweeping is dangerous and punishing work - with a heartless master forcing his gang of sweeps to work in the most unsafe conditions imaginable. Life for sweeps in Victorian London isn't really a life at all. What makes Nan different, though, is her small piece of charcoal that has it's own inner heat, a piece of charcoal whose magic is going to save her in more ways than one.
I read this novel out loud to my twin ten year old sons. We fell in love with Nan and her fellow young sweeps. We mourned as we learned about the life of these children and our hearts nearly burst with what happens to that magical charcoal. I admired Nan's spunk and that of her friends. I appreciated how this story lead to some really important discussions about the responsibilities of adults vs children, about child labor and Victorian England, about education and friendship and kindness, about listening to that part of us that wants to protect those that could use our protection. It's not an easy or gentle read - there are scary/bordered on evil adults and children, there is real danger and real injury and desperate saddness. To be honest, I downright sobbed through half an entire chapter as I read it to my crying boys. But they were the GOOD kind of tears, the cathartic kind that make you realize how much you've emotionally invested in characters and in their story. It went on a little long but read the entire dang thing in a mild cockney accent (stronger for some characters), which made it that much more fun for me :)
It got five stars from both of my sons. I feel like that says something about the magic of this book.
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