Water Street

By: Patricia Reilly Giff

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Brooklyn, 1875: Bird Mallon lives on Water Street where you can see the huge towers of the bridge to Manhattan being built. Bird wants nothing more in life than to be brave enough to be a healer, like her mother, Nory, to help her sister Annie find love, and to convince her brother, Hughie, to stop fighting for money with his street gang. And of course, she wishes that a girl would move into the empty apartment upstairs so that she can have a new friend close by.

But Thomas Neary and his Pop move in upstairs. Thomas who writes about his life in his journal--his father who spends each night at the Tavern down the street, the mother he wishes he had, and the Mallon family downstairs that he desperately wants to be a part of. Thomas, who has a secret that only Bird suspects, and who turns out to be the best friend Bird could ever have.©2006 Patricia Reilly Giff; (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

“Historical fiction at its best.”–Kirkus Reviews, Starred

“A poignant immigration story of friendship, work, and the meaning of home.”–Booklist, Starred

“Giff makes Bird’s Brooklyn so real you could touch it.”–The Horn Book

“Giff masterfully integrates the historical material and presents a vivid picture of the immigrant struggle in the 1870s.”–School Library Journal

Brooklyn 1875

Great story, audible version is excellent. You really feel like you're there. Even though there is only one person telling the story you really get a sense of each of the characters.

Sad but full of grate emotion

I have loved this story for years!!! I would recommend it to anyone who has a love of history.