Saturday, October 3, 2015

The Island Of Worthy Boys By Connie Hertzberg Mayo


Description
"In 1889, the Boston Farm School didn’t accept boys with any sort of criminal record. Which made it the perfect place for two boys who accidentally killed someone to hide.

Charles has been living alone on the streets of Boston for the last two of his twelve years. Aidan’s mom can’t stay sober enough to keep her job. When the boys team up, Charles teaches Aidan the art of rolling drunks in the saloon and brothel district, and life starts to look up―until a robbery goes horribly wrong one night and they need to leave the city or risk arrest. When the boys con their way into The Boston Farm School―located on an island one mile out in Boston Harbor―they think they’ve cheated fate. But the Superintendent is obsessed with keeping the bad element out of his school, and as both their story and their friendship start to splinter, Charles and Aidan discover they are not as far from the law as they had hoped."  

This was an engaging, beautifully written work of historical fiction. While the main characters Charles and Aidan are fictitious, Boston Asylum and Farm School for Indigent Boys did actually exist as does Thompson Island MA.
Charles and Aidan meet quite by accident and although Charles is wary of people and used to being alone the two quickly become the best of friends. They are each suffering through their own hard times and their friendship is only solidified when things take a turn for the worse. I was totally immersed in this story and couldn't put it down.

I received an advance copy in exchange for review

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