Little Crumb (1999)

Set in a Dutch harbor town in 1921, this story follows a ten-year-old orphan everyone calls Little Crumb, drawn from Chris van Abkoude's beloved Dutch children's book. His destitute mother, Lize van Dien, overwhelmed by shame, gave him up to Mrs. Koster shortly after his birth. Though Mrs. Koster has raised him since infancy, she is desperately poor and rules with cruelty, refusing to feed him unless he brings home money first. Forced onto the streets to survive, Crumb scrapes together a living by stealing from barrows and shops, sleeping in churches or doorways, dodging police, and earning the hostility of most adults around him.