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Show Me a Story! by Leonard S. Marcus
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Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier
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FF9900 Orphan Wildlands Blue Highway

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Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster: 12/07/18

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier is the story of an orphan in Victorian London, forced by circumstances to be a chimney sweep. She has memories of stories told to her by the Sweep which keep her going. But when she nearly burns to death she sees near tragedy as an opportunity to live her own life.

Nan Sparrow finds at her side an animated soot creature, like a soot sprite but bigger, growing, and more intelligent. She names her magical companion, Charlie.

Nan sets up a new home in an abandoned house. It's a multilevel affair with so many chimneys that whoever lived there couldn't afford the taxes. She and Charlie live there together. She teaches him and he helps her organize the place.

But this being set in Victorian London, there's no real escape for Nan from her previous life. The man she used to work for wants her to stay dead.

Although this book is set in London, it has elements of a road narrative. IF this book were told from Charlie's point of view, it would have been a 9900CC or scarecrow, city, maze. But as it's told from the orphan's point of view, it comes in higher up on the spectrum, as a FF00CC.

The 00 is for London. It is a city and all of the action takes place within the confines of it. The CC is for the maze which is in multiple forms: the chimneys she sweeps (and their dangers), the old house she is hiding in with all it's crumbling weird rooms, and finally for London itself with all of its layer of architecture, blind alleys and other dangers.

Three stars

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