SOLVED. YA/ Children's book (poss 1950's-80's) about two siblings (boy&girl) who are abandoned, live in an attic by their wits, the boy meets an artist/painter and models for her. [s]

[Quill]

I read this book as a child in the early 90's, so publication date will be pre-1995. May have been one of my mother's teenage books so publication could be as early as the 1950's, probably not much earlier than that.

I can clearly see the cover in my mind, it's of a girl, dark haired (possibly Asian?) with her arms crossed X-like over her chest holding a cat.

The story starts with the children's female relative (mother, grandmother, aunt?) going out shopping and never returning. The abandoned children retreat to the attic where they create a rather cosy life for themselves. The girl keeps house, and adopts a kitten etc, while the boy goes out and obtains food and other goods for them, mostly by traversing the rooftops of the neighbourhood and stealing things.

SPOILER(!)(?)
Through his adventures he eventually meets and befriends a female artist/painter who inhabits a nearby loft. She gets him to model for her, and eventually takes an interest in his origins and finds out the conditions the two of them are living in. Possibly one of them gets sick and they need adult intervention??

I do not recall how the book ends.

Was a favourite book of mine as a pre-teen, loaned to a friend and never got it back! Would be ecstatic to be reminded of the title, especially if it means I can find another copy someday.

[Rainbowheart]

What country were you in when you read this book?

[Quill]

Rainbowheart wrote: "What country were you in when you read this book?"

Good question! The book was in English and I believe I was living in the United States when I read it. If it was my mother's book, though, it might have been published in the UK.

[Rainbowheart]

Those are good clues. This book sounds super familiar to me. I don't know if I've read it or just seen it come up before.

[Rainbowheart]

Tomás Takes Charge

[Quill]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Tomás Takes Charge"

WOW!!!!! Rainbowheart, you are my absolute HERO! I can't believe you came back to this over six months later with the answer!

I did a quick check to be absolutely sure, and you are SPOT ON!

I was off on a few key details:
The image I thought was the cover was an illustration within the book. I didn't immediately recognise the main cover that comes up when you Google this book, however the Scholastic Reprint cover is EXACTLY what I had as a kid. They also renamed the book to "Children in Hiding" making this quest that little bit trickier! I thought the children might be Asian, turns out they were Hispanic/Latinx. It wasn't a female relative who failed to come home, it was their father. They didn't exactly stay in the "attic" but moved into a top floor apartment in an abandoned building. No one gets sick, BUT the brother hurts his ankle, and besides that winter is coming and their apartment has no heat, so eventually adults DO have to intervene.

This blogger gives a full description of the plot (and also, amazingly, reminded me of "cinnamon sticks" which featured in my own childhood as well!)::
https://creativeshadows.wordpress.com...

Rainbowheart, I simply can't thank you enough for reuniting me with this title. I'm going to try and get a copy (hopefully the Scholastic version and all) right away!! Yippe!!!

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, so glad I was able to help!

I try to keep old threads in my mind, and this book came up when I was searching for another thread. The part about modeling for the artist was the same, so I figured it had to be the one.