Orphan Monkeys In The News

The Double Life of Cora Parry by Angela McAllister - review

Cora Parry is an orphan. Her father died before she was born and her mother died in Walston workhouse in London a few years later. When Cora was three years old, a kind man called Elijah came to the workhouse and decided that he and his (not so kind) wife, Martha, would like to adopt her. They took her away to live in the country but then first Elijah died, then Martha. Cora was all alone again.

After Martha's funeral, Martha's brother tells Cora that there's nobody to look after her anymore and he takes her back to London. Cora refuses to go back to live in the workhouse and runs off into the backstreets.

Soon she meets a character called Fletch, who saves her from being captured by the "kidsman". Unfortunately, Cora has to repay Fletch by running errands and stealing, which makes Cora miserable.

One day, she meets a boy called Joe and his monkey, Pip, in a pawn shop. They become friends but she lies to Joe about her name - she calls herself Carrie. She starts to teach Joe to read and soon the pawn shop is the only place she's ever happy.

Cora/Carrie has many adventures – some of them scary – and you really don't know whether there's going to be a sad ending or a happy ending right until almost the last page.

I enjoyed reading this book, although I found some of the descriptions quite frightening in places. It was slightly confusing towards the end when you didn't know whether the main character was Cora or Carrie, but that probably added to the mystery of the story, especially at the end.

If you like the story of Oliver Twist, you'll definitely enjoy reading this book!

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!