The Family from One End Street

The Family from One-End Street is a three hundred page children's chapter book originally published in 1937. It's the story of a poor family. Mom is a washerwoman and Dad is a dustman (I had to look that up...he is what we in the US refer to as a garbage collector). The family has seven very different children. Lily Rose is the oldest and finds her name to be embarrassing. Kate is bright and does extremely well in school. The twin boys, Jim and John, like adventure. Jo, short for Josiah, tries to find ways to get enough money to go to the cinema often. Peg is the youngest daughter, and William is the baby.

The family has struggles and little adventures and great joys, and it's all set in a small town in England in difficult economic times. There are beautiful little black-and-white drawings throughout the book. It's just the sort of story I would have loved when I was a child, with something for everyone.