Fagin’s Girl
Joe and Ettie Shaw are poor children. They live with their parents. But early in the book both mother and father die. Ettie’s first choice is to become a homeless street sweeper. Joe has already left home after unjustly losing his job as a stable boy. His sister has no idea what his new job might be. Just when Ettie is beginning to find the job of street sweeping intolerable, she happens to meet Joe. Joe says she can come with him to work for Mr. Fagin, but since Fagin employs only boys she will have to come in disguise. Ettie has no idea what Mr. Fagin’s line of business might be. But she will accept anything that gets her out of the street sweeping.
Ettie is now known as Bean. Initially she finds favour with her new employer. But when Fagin discovers that Ettie is really a girl, he forces her to go out working alongside her brother. At this point Ettie learns that she and her brother are actually employed as pickpockets. Both Joe and Ettie are arrested. Joe manages to convince the authorities that Ettie is innocent. But he is convicted and sent to Australia.
The time frame of the book now switches to 1988, Australia’s bicentenary year. A female descendant of Joe is giving a presentation marking the event. Through her presentation we learn what happened to Joe and Ettie.
The reader of this book is struck by the ingenuity with which Ettie copes with this unfamiliar situation, having to integrate with a team of boys. The shift of time to the 1980s also catches the reader unawares and provides a memorable conclusion to the stories of the siblings.
