A Chance Child

by Jill Paton Walsh

Creep accidentally travels back in time to the British Industrial Revolution, while, in the present, his half brother is anxiously searching for him.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Childrens, Middle Grade, Time Travel, Fiction, British Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and quite depressing time-slip novel about an abused boy called "Creep" who escapes from the cupboard in which his mother keeps him and somehow travels via the dump (this opening scene was out of keeping with the rest, both surreal and science-fictiony. Why does he seem to not have memories at this point?) back in time to the Industrial Revolution, where he experiences the horrors of child labor. In a secondary narrative his brother, the one family member who cares for him, tries to find him. Christopher and his peers' intellectually and emotionally stunted environment is only positive in comparison to the suffering and starvation of the poor children of the past.
Creep never finds his way home. He makes a life in the past as best he can. Christopher never sees his brother again, and probably makes nothing of himself as he is getting no worthwhile education and has already been written off as a troublemaker by "the system".
As I said, a pretty depressing book. You can't even cheer yourself up by thinking about how things are better now, as there is plenty of child labor and abuse still going on.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Periodically over the past 10 years, I've poked around the internet, trying to find a book that I read in Grade 7. All I could remember was that it took place during the industrial revolution in Great Britain, that there was a scene involving a young child scurrying under a huge automated press to pull stray threads out of the way between carpets -- and nearly being crushed to death, and that it would have been published before 1992.

A Chance Child did come up in a number of searches, and in fact was the only fiction novel to show up, but the publishing dates I saw in the matches were always late 1990s -- long after I'd completed elementary school.

Finally, thanks to a post in a Goodreads group for finding books, I tried searching Worldcat and discovered that this book was actually published in 1978 -- in PLENTY of time to be republished in a classroom-friendly format by 1992.

I'm re-reading it now, and while I haven't yet found the scene with the carpet press, I am feeling very confident that it's the right match. I'm also impressed that this was included in our elementary classroom curriculum. There are some incredibly gritty scenes for 12-year-olds, and the book is dense with descriptions of the living conditions and technology of the time. This is a library copy, but the book is going to find its way into my personal library down the road.

...

[EDIT: I've discovered, thanks to Oolookitty's reply below, that this was NOT the book I was looking for, even though it has a moderately similar carpet-factory scene.]

A Chance Child was a wild ride through the lives of the poor (and a glance at the rich) during the industrial revolution. It saddens me to realize there are still corners of the world where people (including children) face these types of working conditions, but knowing we've come this far gives me hope that we can changes those conditions for everyone, eventually.

[Infosifter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this dark but compelling story, a young boy who is unwanted and abused by his mother somehow travels back in time and finds himself amid the industrial revolution. He travels along the canal system, meets companions, and experiences the horrific plight of children forced to work to provide for themselves. There are descriptions of machinery and industrial processes that are as fascinating as they are horrifying, as well as exploration of peoples attitudes toward children during this time period. Interestingly, although the main character theoretically comes from a better time where almost everyone would agree that the treatment of children – at least in industrialized nations – is much better than it was during the 1840s, he is able to find the caring and companionship he needs in this much harsher time that was unavailable to him in his modern family life. I don't know if the author meant to make the statement that external conditions may matter less than whether a person has love and support from those around them and this is definitely a point that would've gone over my teenage head, but I find it a worthwhile thought for consideration. The author is definitely not saying that injustice from society doesn't matter as long as you have a loving family, but maybe that our ideas about better and worse time periods might be too simplistic to account for individual cases.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual time travel book about an unloved, unwanted child who accidentally time travels back to the age of the Industrial revolution, trading one horrific life for another. An amazing, heart-wrenching story.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part time travel, part historical fiction, A Chance Child tells the story of an abused boy who somehow goes back in time to a harder, but better, life in the early 19th century. Interesting in part because this child in the present is locked under the stairs in a cupboard by his mother, much like another, slightly more popular, children's book character written decades after.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a kid and it was one of those weird books that always stuck with me. I couldn't remember the title or author or anything but that it had a boy travelling on a boat and he'd gone back in time or something. I finally asked about it on a book-finding community a few years ago and found it again (and then it sat on my shelf unread until something reminded me of it again recently).

Rereading it as an adult, it's still pretty weird, especially the first few chapters when you're just thrown right in and have no idea what's going on. But it makes more sense now, as I think a lot of it went over my head when I first read it. It's a good story and I'm glad I had a chance to read it again.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

targets kids but more appropriate for adults

plowed through first third/half before I figured out what was going on

depressing

[Woff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hideous cover. Creep is meant to be what, 10 tops? What’s with that receding hairline!?

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lost child drifts through time on an old canal, and his worried brother tries to track him through historic records. Phoenix Award.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book with some mysterious time travel from a modern story of children in poverty in Great Britain to those sad children working to survive by working in factories in the time of the industrial revolution. This personal story is serious, but shows the human spirit shining even in the face of extreme living conditions for children caring for themselves. It is well documented by Jill Paton Walsh, and like her other books, the descriptions of both the landscape, the workday conditions and the characters are beautifully drawn. This is a quiet book whose author won The Phoenix Award, given by The Children's Literature Association, an organization of teachers, scholars, librarians, editors, writers, illustrators, and parents interested in encouraging the serious study of children's literature, created for a book originally published in the English language, and intended to recognize books of high literary merit. The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird who rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty. Phoenix books also rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A canal boat takes a badly mistreated child back to the Industrial Revolution in England, where he meets other badly mistreated children.....I don't feel able to assign stars, because my personal reading pleasure from it wasn't very much (I don't like reading about miserable tortured children, even if there is a happy ending) but I think it's a very well written, vividly real story, so 4 star-deserving on that count. There were five or so lovely pages about kids in the 19th century making a canal boat into a home, which were five + stars, but then we were plunged back into the horrors of the Industrial Revolution (-10 stars for reading pleasure of about 70% of the book).

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so amazing and highly recommended! Very short read about the industrial revolution and a lost child among the ruble. . .

[Mdog · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it!

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very complicated!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensitive, good children novel.

[Tania]

My last read was chick-lit,so change f pace for me.

[Elizabeth Lund]

Huh