The protagonist of Elizabeth Stead's The Aunts' House (2019) is 11 year old orphan, Angel Martin.

When the story opens - it's 1942 - Angel's mother has just died and 'bequeathed' her daughter to 'Missus Potts' who runs a boarding house where a melange of Dickensian type characters live and where the food is bad even for wartime Sydney.

Angel Martin is a delightful character. She is feisty, forthright, resourceful, intelligent, determined.

She needs to be too, as there are aunts who'd prefer not to acknowledge Angel's existence, men who molest her, and Missus Potts who insists the child earns her keep.

There are, also, however, kind and caring characters too, including a porter at the Art Gallery and tram drivers.