A Partner's Promise

Newsies Axel O’Grady and Nate Greenleaf do all right for themselves. Each day they hit their corner of a New York street and hawk their newspapers. Axel tends to do a bit better because of his personal interpretation of the day’s headlines. Nate is his partner and you always stand by your partner. Even to fighting for him. Side by side Axel and Nate go through their days looking out for each other. At night they return to their carton behind a nearby furniture store. Such is the life they have found for themselves as orphans in the late 1800s, early 1900s in New York City. They are, surprisingly, okay with their lives, at least because they have their friend partner. In fact, Axel considers Nate his brother.

They manage their life quite well until one night, flush with coins from his good sales that day, Axel ends up in a fight with a neighborhood bully with Nate taking the brunt of the bully’s beating. With Nate in the hospital and Axel blamed for starting the fight he is given a choice—go to jail or join an orphan train heading west. Opting for a semblance of freedom Axel chooses to head west. He bids a sad goodbye to Nate, but promises his partner one day he will return to New York.

Upon his arrival in Hawkman, Iowa Axel is at first sad that no family wants him. Knowing if he isn’t adopted by a family he will be sent back to New York and jail, he convinces Mr. Fairfield to take him on to work in his store. Slowly but surely Axel builds a life for himself in Hawkman, not as a son, but as a young man of business. Determined to return to New York he carefully saves each cent he earns because you always keep your promise to your partner.

Fran Shaff’s A PARTNER’S PROMISE is offered as a children’s or young adult book yet it is one both men and women, boys and girls of all ages can enjoy. With delicate sensitivity she brings to life the struggles of orphaned children living on the streets in the early years of the 1900’s. Things such as children living in cartons, not attending school, and going without food, that would appall us today were common place and Ms. Shaff takes the reader into that world. Axel is a multi-dimensional character, a young boy force to grow up way too fast and fend not only for himself but also for his friend. One can easily see where most would have taken the easy way out yet the lesson of why that is not always best is woven in the fabric of the story. He’s to be admired for not taking the easy way out, something many of us would do without a second thought.

Readers are given a glimpse into the sadness of not being wanted and how, as children, we learn to cover up those feelings of not belonging and how some of us find our way to being a part of something.

A PARTNER’S PROMISE is an excellent choice for children and young adults both for fun reading and for the lessons interspersed in the story. For adults looking for a relaxing, feel good and easy read, this is the book for you. One comes away from A PARTNER’S PROMISE feeling like they have spent time with Axel and that is their partner as well.

July 2007