It's the 1980s and thirteen-year-old Mick Jamieson is at school in suburban Sydney. He hates it and can't wait till he's old enough to leave. Home life isn't much better: his mum's dead, his dad's a truck driver based in Queensland, and Mick's stuck living with his elderly nan. When his new history teacher puts on a production of the musical 'Oliver', Mick auditions. Will this be one of the worst decisions he's ever made-or maybe the best?

First published in 1990, Dodger won the Australian Children's Peace Literature Award in 1991.