"Extra, Extra, Read all about it!", Maks, a newsie, shouts each day to help make a few pennies to help his family pay rent and buy food. It's 1893 and New York is bursting forth with tenements, immigrants, unsanitary conditions, thugs, and obscene affluence. Life is harsh enough, but Bruno and the Plug Ugly Gang make it their mission to rob and beat the newsies in hope that they will scare them away from selling newspapers. What would a kid like Bruno care about this? Nothing But the man he works for cares about this a lot! Bruno has Maks right where he wants him, but Willa, a homeless girl with a big stick, has other plans. Maks has other problems too! He has to work to find clues to a crime that is tearing his family apart!
I am often amazed at how children not only survive, but thrive, in the worst of conditions. Maks is lucky! He has a family that loves and cares for him. Willa is lucky because she meets Maks. Not all children are lucky though... This book weaves New York history with a suspenseful story of Maks trying to discover the truth in a world of power and money that seems very foreign to him: The Waldorf hotel!
