The power of words and ideas is at the heart of this upbeat novel following the travels and exploits of an irrepressible 12-year-old orphan. Jack makes his escape from the Opportunities School for Orphans and Foundlings with nothing but his wits and his words, his most treasured possession being a battered old dictionary missing all of the letters A and B. “...From C to Z it had given [him] some of his happiest moments....A sunrise was better when you knew the word sublime...Oatmeal for dinner was somehow not so sad when you knew the word mingy.” On his own, Jack travels where fate takes him, and words and ideas become his means to a living when he stumbles upon the idea of selling whims at a village market in exchange for what he needs. Because imagination and pleasure are frowned upon by the powers that be in that particular village, Jack’s wares (which eventually include “thoughts, concepts, plans, opinions, impressions, notions and fancies”) are eye-opening delights to the populace. In Jack, Sarah Ellis has created a Dickensian hero without all the gloom. He’s anything but downtrodden and hapless. Her blithe novel is a delight to read and begs to be read aloud, with its many words to be relished for how they sound, what they say and the stories they can tell. (Ages 8–11)

For young Jack, life is tough at the Opportunities School for Orphans and Foundlings. But Jack is good at staying out of trouble.

But when Jack turns twelve, he is given the biggest opportunity of all, and suddenly his life is nothing but trouble.

Jack is made an apprentice to a bookkeeper, which at first sounds like the job of his dreams. Taking care of books -- what could be better for a lad whose most treasured possession is a grubby, torn dictionary that he received from the Benevolent Ladies Auxiliary one year for Christmas. But Jack soon learns the hard way that bookkeeping does not involve keeping books safe. Life becomes a misery, and he decides he has no choice but to run away.

But Jack is a clever and resilient boy, and he takes to the traveling life like a creature of the field. Then he arrives in the market town of Aberbog. Lacking worldly merchandise, he becomes an ideas peddlar, selling whims, concepts, plans, opinions, impressions, notions and even fancies. After a rocky start, the dour Aberbogians take him to their hearts, and Jack must decide whether it is time to settle down, or continue his life on the road.