NOTHING ELSE BUT MIRACLES

It’s 1944, and Dory, 12, and her brothers, Fish, 17, and Pike, 7, are living alone; their father has joined the Navy, and their mother is dead from tuberculosis.

The Byrnes live on New York City’s Lower East Side. Their neighbors assist with food, but when a new landlord finds out their dad is away, he makes trouble for the siblings. Dory, an independent risk taker, learns of a long-disused dumbwaiter inside Mr. Caputo’s restaurant in the Fulton Fish Market, where he regularly treats the kids to seafood stew. She uses the dumbwaiter to explore the otherwise inaccessible floors of an old hotel and brings her brothers there to live so they can avoid being sent to an orphanage. The story is both grounded in reality and embellished with entertaining exploits, keeping readers excited about Dory’s experiences as she holds her family together and they await their papa. Occasionally, the text shifts from third to second person and shares with readers knowledge that is hidden from Dory, such as a mystery about a hidden diamond. The novel develops the setting through the kids’ visits to places like the Empire State Building and Coney Island. Dory is an endearing character who confides her thoughts to Libby, her nickname for the Statue of Liberty. In the author’s note, the secrets behind the real hotel that inspired this story are revealed. Characters read white.

An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront.