Garnett was commissioned to illustrate Evelyn Sharp's 1927 book The London Child and the work left her "appalled by conditions prevailing in the poorer quarters of the world's richest city".
She determined to show up some of the evils of poverty and extreme class division in the United Kingdom, especially in contemporary London.
It won the second annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject.
For the 70th anniversary of the Medal, it was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.
Eve Garnett, who lived for many years in Lewes, East Sussex, died in a nursing home there on 5 April 1991.