14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 372 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 372 pagesAbout this book
What makes a child rich when his pockets hold so little?
In The Rich Little Poor Boy, Eleanor Gates brings riches and poverty into the same small life. At its center is a boy with little money and room for big dreams. This gentle childhood tale asks you to look beyond what he owns and consider the wealth of a lively mind.
Imagination, resilience and the courage to hope shape the book’s central questions. What can a child draw on when money offers little comfort? Gates invites you to weigh material riches against warmth, friendship and an open mind. The appeal lies in that quiet contrast: a plain life can still hold something precious.
What you’ll discover
- Little money, big dreams Meet a boy whose limited means stand beside his capacity to imagine more.
- Imagination as wealth Explore the idea that a lively mind offers riches beyond the reach of money.
- The courage to hope Consider resilience through small choices, renewed effort and the wish to keep dreaming.
- A question of riches Weigh the comforts money brings against the deeper value of warmth and friendship.
- Warmth in quiet storytelling Spend time with a gentle tale that makes space for childhood hopes and feelings.
Who will love it
Readers who cherish stories of children overcoming hardship will love this novel. It also suits those drawn to books about books, warm city tales and loyal friends.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hard home cannot contain Johnnie
- Play makes care feel lighter
- A book opens another world
- Strangers answer his love of books
- One-Eye offers shelter and kindness
- Good habits give hope a shape
- Father Pat stands beside the children
- Freedom must leave room for loyalty
- Johnnie answers hardship with imagination
Who’s who
- Johnnie SmithA ten-year-old foster boy with yellow hair and a huge imagination, he does the housework and longs for freedom, books and friends.
- Big Tom BarberA huge, bullying longshoreman who keeps Johnnie shut in and working, and who values muscle and money above kindness.
- CisBig Tom's gentle sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, who works in a box factory, mothers Johnnie and dreams of a different life.
- GrandpaBig Tom's feeble old father, a Civil War veteran in a wheelchair who loves Johnnie's pretend train rides to Niagara Falls.
- Mrs. KukorThe kind, round neighbor upstairs who mends, feeds and comforts Johnnie and lowers books down to him in a basket.
- One-EyeA shy, loyal cowboy with one green eye and shaggy trousers who adopts Johnnie and keeps turning up with gifts.
- Mr. PerkinsA cheerful, spectacled scoutmaster of twenty-one who teaches Johnnie to bathe, exercise and live by the scout laws.
- Father PatA big, red-haired Irish priest with a weak chest and a fighting heart, who sees what Johnnie is worth.
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The Rich Little Poor Boy in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Rich Little Poor Boy
by Eleanor Gates · 1922
A ten-year-old in a grown man's clothes finds a whole world in a battered copy of Aladdin.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Joy comes with the morning.”
In short
What would you do if the only book in your home were a telephone directory? Johnnie Smith, who is ten, uses his to call millionaires on a clothesline telephone strung across a tenement kitchen on New York's Lower East Side.
The Rich Little Poor Boy at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 10 min6 h 30 min fast, 9 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 117,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1922by Eleanor Gates
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Johnnie does a grown woman's work daily
The story opens on Johnnie Smith, who is ten but wears clothes that seem forty. He is a foster child, and he has lived in the Barber flat for five years.
Big Tom Barber is a longshoreman with huge shoulders and a strap that he uses on the boy. Each morning he leaves orders about dishes, beds and bead stringing. When the boy stays silent, the man's temper rises. When the boy answers, it rises too.
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A ten-year-old in a grown man's clothes finds a whole world in a battered copy of Aladdin.
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Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 372 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 372 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 632 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 632 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Wed 2 Dec to Tue 8 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Gates, Eleanor. The Rich Little Poor Boy. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rich-little-poor-boy.
Gates, E. (2026). The rich little poor boy. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rich-little-poor-boy (Original work published 1922)
Gates, Eleanor. The Rich Little Poor Boy. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rich-little-poor-boy.
@book{gates2026rich,
author = {Gates, Eleanor},
title = {The Rich Little Poor Boy},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rich-little-poor-boy},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is The Rich Little Poor Boy about?
It tells of Johnnie Smith, a ten-year-old foster boy in a New York tenement who does housework for a cruel longshoreman. He finds escape in daydreams, books, scout training and unexpected friends who show him his true worth.
Who is Father Pat in the book?
Father Pat, whose full name is Patrick Mungovan, is a big, red-haired Irish priest with weak lungs and a strong heart. He meets Johnnie by chance, stands up to Big Tom, and becomes his teacher and friend.
Why is the boy called a rich little poor boy?
The phrase means Johnnie owns almost nothing but has great wealth in mind and character. His imagination, love of books, courage, humor and ability to love are the riches the title refers to.
The author
Eleanor Gates
1875–1951 · American playwright
Eleanor Gates was an American novelist and playwright. She was born in Minnesota and lived in California. Her play The Poor Little Rich Girl was produced on Broadway in 1913. Her novel The Rich Little Poor Boy appeared in 1922. She died in 1951.
“Joy comes with the morning.”
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