Secret of the Red Flame

K.M. Kimball

ISBN 10: 0613627024 ISBN 13: 9780613627023

Publisher: Econo-Clad Books, Div. of American Cos., Inc., 2003

Synopsis

JOZEF IS PLAYING A
DANGEROUS GAME

After Jozef loses the earnings from his family's butcher shop to a gang of street urchins, he vows to recover the money. Refusing to heed the warnings of his brother, an embittered, disabled Civil War veteran, he and his friends form a secret society to infiltrate the gangs that have been victimizing the Polish-American community in 1871 Chicago.

To his surprise, Jozef finds himself in an uneasy friendship with Bridget, a member of one of the gangs. When Bridget is falsely arrested for the murder of a parish priest, Jozef knows the only way to save her is to find the real killer. As tinder-dry Chicago threatens to erupt in flames, Jozef, with the help of an unlikely ally, pursues a foe far more dangerous -- and evil -- than the homeless waifs who stole his family's cash.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-It's 1871, and times are dry and brittle in the Chicago Polish immigrant settlement. Then Jozef Chapski and his family's situation worsens when the protagonist, who speaks in a very mature voice for a 12-year-old, is robbed while taking the profits from his family's butcher shop to the bank. In an effort to make up the loss to his hardworking father, church-cleaning mother, and disabled Civil War-veteran brother, he joins with his friends to form the Red Flame, a secret society with the mission to halt a recent rash of crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. To that end, Jozef soon takes up with a gang of street-tough youths and befriends Bridget, one of the ringleaders who is fearful of the true captain, the Wolf. Then a crime more serious than a mugging takes place and Bridget is held accountable. Sure of her innocence, Jozef and his brother, whom he has convinced to shred his shroud of self-pity, set out on a climactic race to clear her name and catch the Wolf. This episode happens to occur on the very same night that Chicago begins to burn, and the culmination of all these events provides a somewhat hokey ending, which will nonetheless appeal to young readers.
Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 4-7. This original paperback features a boy from Chicago's Polish community in 1871. Entrusted with the earnings from his father's butcher shop, Jozef is robbed by a street urchin on his way to the bank. His determination to retrieve the money propels him into a secret alliance with other children in his own community, then into infiltrating the band of young thieves as a spy. Despite the first-person narrative's occasional lapses into twentieth-century viewpoints or syntax, this historical novel is refreshing in its willingness to take on difficult realities and weave them into a story with narrative force. The vivid portrait of Jozef's angry and depressed older brother, a double-amputee whose injuries were sustained during the War between the States, is more authentic and compelling than children are accustomed to finding in their literature. On the other hand, the portrayals of the Dickensian street urchins and their Fagin-like leader seem rather sketchy. The story climaxes during the Chicago Fire, which serves mainly as a backdrop for the exciting denouement. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Econo-Clad Books, Div. of American Cos., Inc.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0613627024
• ISBN 13: 9780613627023
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 6