The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry
2016; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 69; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2016.0138
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
ResumoReviewed by: The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry April Spisak Cherry, Alison The Classy Crooks Club. Aladdin, 2016 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-4637-2 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-4639-6 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 AJ can’t believe she has to spend most of her summer with her stiff, formal grandmother who seems to think that AJ’s sporty, messy lifestyle is unacceptable. She does get to be driven around by a hunky chauffeur, and her grandma’s friends are quirky and fun, but, more excitingly, she stumbles onto an incredible secret: her grandmother and her cronies are criminals who “liberate” things they believe would be better off in other homes. Her grandmother’s passion is exotic pets who are mistreated, and AJ’s first heist involves saving a bird. Soon AJ learns lock-picking, gets her first pair of night-vision goggles, and embarks on a life of crime. The twist near the end involving a kidnapping is less successful than the rest of the story, but the warm conclusion shows growth for both AJ and her mellower grandma. It is a clever choice to have AJ narrate, as this makes the section where she is kidnapped tense and startling—she clearly had no clue, in spite of what readers might have caught about one character’s sketchy history. The heists themselves carry all the drama one would expect—these women clearly consider themselves to be professionals and train AJ rigorously. Offer this to young caper fans; they’ll even leave with a couple of tips on how to start mapping out their own criminal futures. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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