Determined to escape, Ailis creates a way for her and Quinn to leave during the day and work to save money. Miss Franny hates the Irish and takes her anger out on Ailis and Quinn. While Nettie goes to school, Ailis and Quinn are forced to clean the boardinghouse each day by Miss Franny, the caretaker. At the boardinghouse, they meet Nettie, a precocious, hen-loving six-year-old orphan who shares a small closet with Ailis. Olsen, the powerful former president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, offers to bring them to his boardinghouse in Chicago, they accept. Ailis, 12, and Quinn, 11, lost their parents and their baby sister in Peshtigo. A good mix of history and mystery enlivened with interesting, likable characters.' - Kirkus ' On October 8, 1871, two great fires roared through Peshtigo, WI, and Chicago, destroying families, homes, and lives. Hilmo's author's note explains her inspiration for the story and puts it in historical context. The mystery surrounding Nettie's disappearance makes for compelling reading, as does the story's historical backdrop. Ailis narrates, her outsider position convincingly realized as she navigates this city of immigrants. When she mysteriously disappears, their investigation puts them in touch with the wealthy boardinghouse owner and a reporter investigating child labor. Ailis and Quinn anglicize their names to Alice and Steven Smith when applying for work and befriend the nave 9-year-old orphan Nettie, who was displaced by the Chicago fire. The investigation into the fire's origin centers on Catherine O'Leary, suspected of arson, inflaming anti-Irish sentiment among many in the city, including Miss Franny, who runs the boardinghouse and resents having to shelter the two refugees. Orphaned and homeless, they go to live in a boardinghouse in Chicago, still reeling from its own catastrophic inferno. Irish-immigrant siblings Ailis and Quinn Doyle survive the Peshtigo firestorm by jumping in the Menominee River. 'The Peshtigo Fire is the deadliest in recorded history, completely destroying the Wisconsin town and claiming as many as 2,500 lives, but it is largely forgotten because it happened on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire: Oct.

Cinnamon Moon by Tess Hilmo