Joshua Harper and his mother are struggling financially since his father died of influenza. Even though his family lives in a wealthy Boston neighborhood, Joshua’s father had few assets when he died. Filled with grief, anger, and not a little self-pity at having to find a job, Joshua gets work as a newsie at age 13. Joshua is good at hawking newspapers. And, in getting to know one of the other newsies, Angelina (a young girl who poses as a boy), Joshua learns about the poverty in Boston’s North End. He is dismayed that the newspapers haven’t written about the conditions there, and that the government hasn’t done more to help the people in the neighborhood. On one of his visits to the North End, Joshua gets caught in what is known as Boston’s “Great Molasses Flood” of 1919, when a tank holding 2.5 million gallons of raw molasses burst, killing and injuring those in its path. There is a tense, dramatic climax before loose ends are neatly tied for young readers. An author’s note provides a lengthy discussion of the “molasses flood,” as well as information on the influenza pandemic of 1918 and newsies. (Ages 8–11)

Boston, 1919. It's been a year of distressing changes for thirteen-year-old Joshua Harper. The influenza pandemic that's sweeping the world has claimed the life of his father; his voice has changed, so he can't sing in the Boston Boys' Choir anymore; and now money is tight, and his mother is asking him to quit school to get a job. It's not fair!Joshua begins working as a newspaper boy, hawking papers on the street. He soon finds himself in rivalry with Charlestown Charlie, a tough, streetwise Irish boy. Now Joshua is completely torn between the privileged life he once knew as one of the well-to-do Beacon Hill Boys and his new existence on the street, among tenements and street vendors.How Joshua adjusts and comes to find his voice, his song, and his place in the world by his acts of courage during a terrifying crisis is the heart of this fast-paced, suspenseful novel. Joan Hiatt Harlow has created a memorable character in Joshua and a remarkable story based on true incidents in Boston history.