Annie Murray's The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and triumphs of the Fletcher family.
Working at the local pearl button factory, Ada Fletcher is doing her best to make ends meet in trying times.
When tragedy strikes and her siblings are taken to a workhouse orphanage, Ada is saved from a similar fate by her neighbour, Sarah Connell.
But the roof over Ada’s head doesn’t come without a price: the Connells have too many children and not enough money, and Sarah’s reliance on drink means that it isn’t long before Ada needs to escape.
Determined to be more than just a factory girl, Ada embarks on a journey to reunite with her siblings. But in a teeming industrial city, will she be able to find long-lost family as well as a home and life to call her own?