Paupers

Lydia Maddison and her family have nowhere to go. Their father has left them - and left them with nothing. So they begin at the workhouse as paupers, in Victorian England. It's a hard way to live: families are seperated, talking is forbidden and there is little food and too much hard work. Lydia's son Tom and his sister Rose need to summon all their strength and ingenuity to survive - especially as Rose has a baby of her own to look after. It's not easy when minor transgressions are severly punished and tragedy is never far away. What does the future hold for the Maddison family?This sober and gripping account of life amongst the Victorian poor takes the reader on a journey including both heartbreak and triumph. A final note at the end of the book offers some historical background to the Poor Laws and workhouses in nineteenth-century England. An eye-opening tale that is sobering but ultimately uplifting, drawing on real life contexts to create an evocative narrative that will appeal to children who are curious about the past and want a more thematically challenging story compared to the usual books for their age range.