City of Orphans

In the Lower East Side of New York City in 1893, 13-year-old newspaper salesperson, or “newsie,” Maks Geless, a Danish immigrant, is selling copies of The World proclaiming a murder at the Waldorf Astoria. In a flashback to five days earlier, on October 9, 1893, Maks is finishing a day of hawking his papers on the street corner. He must purchase the day’s bundle with his own money and will earn a meager eight cents for the day if he sells them all. The “Great Panic of 1893” has landed Maks’s family as well as many others on hard times. His work as a newsie is valuable to their survival. As he attempts to sell his last paper with headlines announcing the trial of political boss Joe Gorker, Bruno, leader of the Plug Ugly Gang and known for bullying other newsies, lurks nearby. Maks weighs his options, calculating the impossible distance he still has left to travel home, and decides to run.

Maks stares down Bruno and five more gang members. The overcrowded and treacherous streets are a place one might find dangerous for a child. This is a