When his family is arrested after the Bolshevik Revolution, 12-year-old Alex survives in the only way he can—by joining a gang of “wild children,” homeless orphans who live by their wits in abandoned buildings and in caves, begging or stealing the bare necessities. Although their situation is grim, Alex and his friends cling to each other and to the hope for a better future. Based on her research in to the plight of the countless children left homeless after the Revolution, Holman gives a fictionalized account, as harsh as the lives they led and as strong as those who survived it. (Age 11 and older)

Left behind when his family is arrested by soldiers during the dark days following the Bolshevik Revolution, twelve-year-old Alex falls in with a gang of other desperate homeless children, but never loses his hope for a better life.