Anna Jacobs' stories are impossible to put down once you start reading them. In this book, she begins the saga of the Gibson family and their lives in a neighbourhood, which is little more than a slum, but still better than one that is even lower on the scale. The family members have their own problems, but all are struggling to survive poverty and the harsh economic conditions of their time. Of them, Annie, the eldest daughter is the one who holds the family together and has the drive and ambition to get out of these conditions, but she, too, faces very difficult times. The story was so well-written and the characters so interesting that when I'd finished it, I promptly bought all the rest in the series. Although I have several still to read, none so far has disappointed.