Troubles beset 11-year-old Esme. Dangled over wells, thrown into root cellars, and forced to empty chamber pots, she longs for a better life. Now her murderous guardian has sold her to a workhouse on Rag-Picker's Row. This colorful historical fiction is set in rural Minnesota in 1904. Filled with humor and dramatic suspense, it received a gold medal in the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards of 2013.