Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

Jonathon Auxier’s Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster (2018) is a work of fiction written for middle grade readers. It tells the story of the brave Nan Sparrow, a young chimney sweep who is given the gift of a golem—a protective monster—by her father figure, the Sweep. Nan navigates cruelty and poverty in her journey to achieve a fairer life for herself and her friends, forming a loving pseudo-family along the way. Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster has won a number of awards, including The Sydney Taylor Book Award (2019), the Charlotte Huck Award (2019), the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (2019), and the Governor General Award for Young People’s Literature (2018). Furthermore, Auxier’s novel was a nominee for the Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature (2019), the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award (2021), the Vermont Golden Done Book Award (2020), and the California Young Readers Medal (2021).

This guide refers to the 2019 Puffin Books Edition of Sweep: The Story of the Girl and Her Monster.

Plot Summary

Nan is a young girl who is initially raised by a mysterious and magical chimney sweep known to Nan only as “the Sweep.” When Nan is six, the Sweep mysteriously vanishes. The main plotline of the story focuses on the life of 11-year-old Nan, but retrospective chapters (written in italics to indicate a temporal change) depict her early years living with the Sweep. For the majority of the story, Nan lives in London, England.

After the Sweep’s disappearance, Nan is forced to indenture herself to Wilkie Crudd, the cruel owner of the chimney sweeping business called The Clean Sweep. Nan lives with other children in the coal bin in Crudd’s basement. They are sometimes fed gruel for breakfast, but they never get enough to eat, and they are frequently beaten for lateness or other missteps. It is a harsh and loveless life for the children.

While cleaning chimneys at a seminary (a school for girls), Nan makes the acquaintance of a schoolteacher named Miss Bloom, who is impressed when Nan successfully solves a riddle written on the blackboard. While cleaning the chimney of the fireplace in the girls’ classroom, Nan becomes stuck, and a fellow sweep named Roger, who has a penchant for cruelty, lights a fire in the fireplace to “encourage” her to free herself. When this happens, Nan makes the incredible discovery that her piece of char, which was left in the Sweep’s hat when he unexpectedly left, is actually a golem with the power to come to life when heated. As the smoke and flames threaten to overcome Nan, the golem—whom Nan will later name Charlie—comes to life and saves her.

Charlie and Nan escape from the cruelty of Crudd and live together in the House of One Hundred Chimneys, an abandoned house which is thought to be haunted. Charlie and Nan happily repurpose the rooms in the enormous house for their own benefit, allocating rooms for different games, for learning, and for sleeping. They rename it the captain’s house in honor of the seafaring owner who used to live there and who left furniture and possessions. Meanwhile, Charlie continues to learn new words. Nan decides that he should have a body; he is just a large lump of coal, and it is difficult for him to perform tasks without hands. After spending days in the basement with a bag of soot, Charlie appears, now in the form of a large, misshapen man-like monster.

In an attempt to discover Charlie’s true nature, Charlie and Nan read through a book in the captain’s library called The Illustrated Book of Beasts. Nan concludes that Charlie is a golem, a creature from Jewish legends. She approaches her friend Toby, a local Jewish boy who sells wares that he finds on the banks of the Thames, and quizzes him about his knowledge of golems. Toby doesn’t know about golems specifically. Nan also shows him a prototype for a mechanical chimney sweep which she found in an old newspaper, hoping that he can build it.

Nan sneaks back to the seminary to find books to teach Charlie how to read; she is reacquainted with Miss Bloom, who is sitting in a nearby chair and surprises Nan. Miss Bloom starts to lend Nan books and is soon impressed by the rate at which Nan can read. Nan also asks Miss Bloom (who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family) about golems; Miss Bloom tells her that golems exist for a certain purpose and die once that purpose is fulfilled. This information fills Nan with dread because she doesn’t want Charlie to die.

Charlie is amazed by the sight of snow once winter arrives. He plays in it happily on the roof in the company of Nan and Toby. Suddenly, they see Roger below; he is wearing Nan’s hat, which used to belong to the Sweep. Nan throws a snowball at Roger and is immediately chastised by Toby, who warns her that Crudd is still looking for her. Later, Charlie and Nan sneakily distribute Christmas presents to their friends on Christmas night, and Charlie, Toby, and Nan celebrate New Year’s Eve together and value their close connection as a pseudo-family.

Nan (who is still working as a chimney sweep) is approached on the street one day by a woman needing her services; the woman promises to pay Nan double. Nan arrives at the house and is cornered by Crudd, who threatens to kill her and shove her body into a chimney to be found by the Board of Works. (The Board of Works, thinking that Nan died during her assignment at the girls’ seminary, had fined Crudd 10 pounds for her supposed “death” while in his employ. Crudd reasons that if the Board finds her body somewhere else, he will be able to recover his 10 pounds.) Suddenly, Charlie arrives and savagely grabs Crudd, burning him badly, and throws him from the window. The now-disfigured Crudd swears revenge on Nan as he crawls away, bleeding and broken. Charlie seems shocked in the aftermath of his attack on Crudd; Nan explains that he acted that way because his life’s purpose is to defend Nan.

A robin makes a nest in the attic, which Charlie and Nan call the Nothing Room, and lays an egg. Charlie is overjoyed and looks forward to the egg hatching, but he accidentally breaks the egg while handling it. Distraught, Charlie manages to bring the dying bird back to life, but—in return—one of his hands turns to stone. Nan works out that in order for Charlie to give life, a part of himself must be sacrificed. Charlie calls the bird Dent and looks after it lovingly.

Miss Bloom asks Nan whether she will speak to the Friendly Society, a group of women who are interested in funding social reform, about life as a chimney sweep. Instead of speaking herself, Nan sends her friend Newt, a boy who still works for Crudd. A woman is so besotted with Newt that she decides to adopt him, but Crudd forbids this because Newt is indentured to him. While lawyers try to reason with Crudd, Newt is tragically killed in a fall from a factory flue.

Newt’s death spurs both his friends and Miss Bloom to action. They decide to transform the May Day march, an annual event in which chimney sweeps march ceremonially through London to applause and gifts, into a silent and solemn protest. Rather than washing, they wear their dirty sweep clothes and march in pointed silence. At the square under the matchstick (a large chimney that commemorates the Fire of London), the children hold signs with the names, ages, and causes of death of many of their friends who have died while climbing chimneys. They also hold Newt’s coffin aloft.

Charlie is supposed to be in the march, dressed as the Green Man (a ceremonial figure who is traditionally involved in the march), but Roger tricks him into getting onto a boat in the Thames, which he pushes into the middle of the river. Charlie manages to climb up a pylon of the London Bridge and runs to the matchstick. Meanwhile, Crudd finds Nan and threatens to kill her. Nan climbs to the top of the matchstick, pursued by Crudd. Crudd loudly shouts that no one will care if she dies, as the people of London indifferently watch children fall to their death every day. As it turns out, Crudd is the one to fall to his death. Nan falls also but lands in a canopy. Nonetheless, she is fatally injured. Charlie arrives and carries Nan away, taking her to the cemetery where the Sweep is buried. Charlie, who is magically connected to all of the Sweep’s memories, recounts the adult perspective of the times that Nan and the Sweep spent together. Charlie gives the last of his life to save Nan and turns to stone above the Sweep’s grave.

The May Day protest has a profound impact; a law is passed which stipulates that children below 13 years of age cannot work as chimney sweeps. Miss Bloom and the Pleasant Society buy the captain’s house and turn it into a school for retired sweeps; many of Nan’s friends come to live there with her. Toby and Nan, who now work together, visit the cemetery where the Sweep is buried and where Charlie’s stone figure is frozen. Dent the robin makes a nest in the crook of Charlie’s arms.