Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Dark, funny tale of teen trying to flee his criminal family.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
As THIEVING WEASELS begins, scholarship student Cam Smith has made the most of his years at posh Wheaton Academy, studying hard, working in the cafeteria, finding the perfect girlfriend -- and now, being accepted at Princeton. Trouble is, Cam Smith doesn't actually exist; he's one of many fake identities used by Skip O'Rourke, child and pawn of the O'Rourke clan of grifters, con artists, and scammers. At 13, Skip decided he wanted a non-criminal life as a regular person, ran away from his family, and assumed the identity of "Cam." Almost four years later, he gets a rude surprise when his scuzzy uncle turns up, demanding he return to the fold and help out with "one last job." Otherwise, Cam's perfect life will be history.
Is It Any Good?
Dark, profane, and often hysterically funny, Billy Taylor's YA debut finds a Princeton-bound prep-schooler trying to escape his birth family of liars, crooks, scoundrels, and possibly murderers. Narrator Cam's efforts to stay one step ahead of his thieving relatives involve outsmarting them -- but also a return to the criminal ways of his youth.
The pace is quick -- the better to entangle the reader in the convoluted plots the characters devise against one another -- with more than a few nail-biting moments before the final confrontation.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Thieving Weasels as an example of a story of a seriously toxic family. What other examples do you know? Are they always funny?
Sometimes your family supports you. Sometimes it can seem as if they're holding you back. Do you or your friends feel this way? How do you strike the right balance?
Do you think it's possible for people to overcome a bad start and change their ways, or are they doomed to stay on the same path forever?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Contemporary Fiction
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Dial
- Publication date : August 23, 2016
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 12 - 18
- Number of pages : 256
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : July 13, 2017
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