A Boy Called Dickens (review)
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Hopkinson fuses fact and imagination in this account of Charles Dickens' boyhood, specifically his tenure wrapping and labeling bottles of boot blacking while his father and family languish in debtors' prison. Here young Charles passes the ten-hour days by regaling a fellow worker with made-up stories, elements of which would later appear in his best-known novels. This episode in Dickens' life concludes with the turnabout in family fortune that finds the father released from prison, Charles released from factory work, and an education and a writing career in Charles's future. Hopkinson does her best to make Dickens relevant to children who probably know little or nothing to date about his work, but questions may certainly arise about how a man can pay off his debt while incarcerated and unable to work, and allusions in young Charles's stories to David Copperfield and Great Expectations will probably miss their mark. Still, narration that addresses the audience directly is effective and involving ("There he is, running to that run-down, rickety house by the river. Are we brave enough to follow him?"), and Hendrix's pictures are gritty and tenebrous enough to create a, well, Dickensian atmosphere, with just enough cheer to foreshadow a happy ending. A closing note comments more fully on autobiographic references in Dickens' work; source notes are not included.
