From an award-winning author of historical fiction comes a story of survival, crime, adventure, and horses in the streets of 19th century New York City.

Eleven-year-old Rocco finds himself alone in New York City after he’s sold to a padrone by his poverty-stricken parents and forced to leave his small Italian village. While working as a street musician, he meets the boys of the infamous Bandits’ Roost, who teach him the art of pickpocketing while posing as a newsboy. Rocco embraces his new life of crime–he’s good at it, and it’s more lucrative than banging a triangle on the street corner. But when he meets Meddlin’ Mary, an Irish immigrant who has a big mouth and an even bigger heart, he begins to reexamine his life–and take his future into his own hands.