The Gingerbread House — Alice Dwyer-Joyce

Lesley Summer is a foundling with a gold band in her hair -- gipsy's gold. They say she cannot speak, only repeat that her name is Honey; yet she reads what is written over the arched door of the orphanage; “Count Your Blessings.” She can learn that the Matron rules with other words: “In here, I'm the law.”

There are mists from the past in the confusion of her mind -- a nightmare, a memory of a scream and a far-off splash that chokes it short deep down in the ground. Yet there is Mr. Barleydrop, who gives sweets to crocodiles. There is Jonah Rohan, who opens the gate and lets her go free. Then at last there is Ireland, where she discovers “Tinker”, a dog as broken as herself, and surely with the same nobility.