Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Kids fight gangsters in thrilling, heart-filled 1920s tale.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
THE GOOD THIEVES takes place in 1920s Manhattan, a time of gangsters, speakeasies, bootlegging, and bloodshed. This is also when a lot of hopeful people came to the United States from all over the world seeking a better life. Among them is young Vita, newly arrived with her mom on a boat from Liverpool to rescue her grandfather. He's fallen on hard times since a gangster swindled him out of the family home, a decrepit old-world castle in upstate New York. Vita's already survived the death of her father in the Great War (World War I) and years of hospitalization with polio, which left her with a bad leg and a strong bond with the grandfather and mentor who helped her heal (and made her an expert knife thrower). So she's determined to get the castle back. She soon has unlikely allies in Arkady, son of the owner of the circus at Carnegie Hall, and Ben, an aspiring acrobat. Also Silk, an orphan who's been thieving to survive forever. They'll need all their skills and teamwork just to stay alive, though, as they've made themselves a target for the most murderous gangster in town, aka the one who stole the castle.
Is It Any Good?
Inventive storyteller Katherine Rundell takes us to 1920s Manhattan in a sweet, scary, swashbuckling adventure pitting an unlikely band of tweens against the most murderous gangster in New York. The gangster in question quickly finds his life is a lot more complicated since he encountered tenacious, red-headed Vita (an unexpected consequence of stealing the family home from her unsuspecting grandpa), and things really escalate when she absconds with a piece of evidence that implicates the mobster in a notorious murder. As Vita and her friends dodge their would-be killers while pursuing their quest for hidden treasure (and to restore the smile on her grandpa's face), The Good Thieves face bad guys, perils, and dicey situations aplenty in a fast-moving plot with unexpected developments galore, and also sweet moments.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the 1920s are portrayed in The Good Thieves. What things in the story do you think have changed for the better in today's world? Has anything changed for the worse?
The Good Thieves describes the polio epidemics of the early 20th century, and their devastating impact on polio patients like Vita. What other stories do you know of people who've had to cope with polio and its lifelong consequences? How did things change for them, and how did they stay the same?
The long-lost family fortune -- getting it back, obsessing over it, wondering whether it ever existed at all -- has been a popular theme in storytelling forever. What other books with this theme have you read, and how does The Good Thieves compare with them?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Charles Santoso
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , History , Animals
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Publication date : November 6, 2019
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 272
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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