A bandit's tale: the muddled misadventures of a pickpocket, paperback/deborah hopkinson

From an award-winning author of historical fiction comes a story of survival, crime, adventure, and horses in the streets of 19th century New York City.

Eleven-year-old Rocco is an Italian immigrant who finds himself alone in New York City after hes sold to a padrone by his poverty-stricken parents.

While working as a street musician, he meets the boys of the infamous Bandits Roost, who teach him the art of pickpocketing.

Rocco embraces his new life of crime--hes good at it, and its more lucrative than banging a triangle on the street corner.

But when he meets Meddlin Mary, a strong-hearted Irish girl whos determined to help the horses of New York City, things begin to change.

Rocco begins to reexamine his life--and take his future into his own hands.