The Thief's Apprentice

August 1, 2016

Gr 4-6-Oliver Diplexito leads a rather boring life in his large English home filled with servants. However, the moment he discovers a member of the household staff, Mr. Scant, is not quite as dull as he once seemed, Oliver's life suddenly turns upside down. Throughout London's museums, valuable treasures are being stolen, and Scotland Yard can't catch the thief, who is known as the Ruminating Claw (his nickname originates from the large, blade-fingered claw he wears on one hand as he makes off with masterpieces...that he eventually returns). The Ruminating Claw's identity and purpose is a mystery to all, but Oliver soon uncovers part of the truth when he learns the thief is Mr. Scant. Oliver is unsure about what to do with this news, but his confusion is compounded when Mr. Scant urges him to meet late one night. Together, they break into the National Portrait Gallery to return a missing painting. Adventures around London continue for Oliver and Mr. Scant throughout the story. Rich vocabulary, Briticisms, and a complex plot make this selection most suitable for advanced young readers. VERDICT Reminiscent of Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer and Laura Marx Fitzgerald's Under the Egg, this is a unique spin on the heist novel that will appeal to sophisticated middle graders.-Beth Parmer, New Albany Elementary Library, OH

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July 15, 2016
An English schoolboy hones both wits and breaking-and-entering skills after the family butler enlists him for a series of dangerous secret missions.Oliver, 12-year-old scion of the head of Diplexito Engineering and Combustibles Ltd., is stunned to learn that the forbidding Mr. Scant is a mysterious burglar popularly known as the Ruminating Claw--for the bladed mechanical contraption he wears on one hand. This revelation is followed by mounting excitement as the white lad learns that Scant is really engaged in returning artifacts stolen from various museums by a secret group of would-be mages known as the Woodhouselee Society. Better yet, Scant wants him along to help! Ensuing nighttime outings to the British Museum and elsewhere give Oliver not only an eyeful of awesome martial feats from Scant, but heartening tests of his own previously untried courage as dust-ups with baddies led by cleaver-wielding giantess Valkyrie build to a climactic imbroglio featuring dirigibles (this is 1910, with some alterations) and a heavily armed "land ironclad." A last-minute ally named Cai Zhao-Ji and some of the aforementioned bad guys, who belong to the Asian Tri-Loom crime syndicate, are the only characters of color. Methods' fights are the sort in which there's always time for dialogue, combatants don't die or even bleed when they're wounded, and the deadliest adversary abruptly withers under a good scolding. The fight choreography needs work but otherwise, a promising debut and series opener. (Fantasy. 10-12)

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July 1, 2017
A discovery upends English schoolboy Oliver Diplexito's tedious life: the family butler, Mr. Scant, is the elusive thief known as "Ruminating Claw," responsible for seizing priceless treasures throughout England. However, Mr. Scant's heists are not what they seem, and Oliver becomes his apprentice, helping him thwart the real criminals. While the characters lack richness and the plot is uneven, the intriguing premise should keep readers engaged.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)