SOLVED. Dickens type setting, children's book [s]

[Abigail]

For ages 12 and up, perhaps a "road" in the title. Cover had a girl and boy in silhouette going down a road...
brother and sister run away from farm where they're enslaved. End up in factory city and join gang of ruffians. Sister ends up in an insane asylum, brother winds up as an experiment of a wealthy philosopher who wants to see if a poor boy's personality can be altered with a better monetary situation...
thanks!

[Emily]

this sounds vaguely familiar...do you remember when you read it or when it might have been written?

[Cassiel]

Published in 2005:

The Whispering Road
by Livi Michael

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Cassiel is correct.



In Victorian England, two poverty-stricken siblings, left by their mother at the workhouse and then sold to an abusive farmer, try to get to Manchester to find her. Joe and his younger sister are helped by a friendly tramp, encounter hideous Dog-woman, and join a traveling fair. Annie has some rare gifts: she can see the dead and prophesize the future. Joe, in a move he will deeply regret, leaves her with the performers and continues on to the city, where he takes up with a gang of orphans who fend for themselves. Next, a wealthy gentleman takes Joe in, but the boy eventually realizes that his benefactor thinks the poor are animals and runs off. He connects with a radical printer and his friend, Nell. When Joe finds Annie and discovers that their mother has died, the four of them make a family. This episodic novel moves from one tragedy to another, yet manages to end in hope. Joe is an engaging narrator who, through his love of stories, continually reinvents himself. Michael's depiction of 1830s Manchester is one of the best aspects of the novel. The chaos, poverty, and disease brought by industrialization are vividly drawn. With its blend of magical realism and grim history, this novel reads like David Almond meeting Charles Dickens.

[Abigail]

Oh yes! Thank you!! Though I'm 5 years late, I appreciate it!