Just So Stories

Hachette

FEB 28, 2023 | 9781444965735 | RRP $16.99

• Hodder Children’s Books

This is another one that got delayed despite being read very swiftly when it first arrived. Two reasons for that being I was taking it to and fro to read to a Year 5 class with whom I was spending quite a bit of time, and then because it got packed into a box during The Great House Move.

I suspect I’m getting the review up in time for the second instalment *grin* [Book 2 due out in August]. It certainly is a very different sort of school story, and my little pack of rascals liked it very much (possibly because so many could relate!).

Gabriel is 13, lives with Grandma in poverty and drudgery, and is a highly adept pickpocket. He doesn’t steal for the thrill of it, or for ‘want’ but for need, to keep food on the table for himself and, more importantly, for Grandma. When he is tricked into being found out, he is not arrested (as has always been the danger) but is, instead, invited to attend Crookhaven, a school for thieves (of all kinds).

There is some indecision for this boy with irregular moral ideas, because the school is a boarding one, and leaving his Grandma to fend for herself is not what he wants to do at all. But he is persuaded to take the longer view by the Principal, Caspian Crook, and so begins as a pupil at a school where he will not only hone his pickpocketing skills to an even higher standard, but learn the art of forgery, lock-picking, ‘crim-nastics’ – in fact, all the many skills that will enable him to be a first-class thief in any arena.

All of this sounds quite unscrupulous and, certainly, my little cherubs were quite indignantly taken aback, protesting ‘that’s just wrong!’, until they learned, as does Gabriel, that at Crookhaven the purpose of becoming a skilled crook is to set things to rights. In other words, there is a Robin Hood philosophy at play, and the Crookhaven students are trained up to defraud, rob or con the ‘bad guys’, and restore to the innocent.

It is a wonderful concept that encourages and stimulates lively debate, you can take that from me. Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing for our hero as he makes friends (a very new concept for him), hotly contests the school competition for the Crook Cup, and begins to unravel secrets such as that of his parents’ abandonment of him as a baby

.Gabe is a very likeable character as are his quirky friends, even snooty Penelope (the principal’s daughter) who make up as colourful a bunch of misfits as you could ever meet, but each bringing their own individual talents to the problem at hand.

Your kids will enjoy the narrative for its own sake, but also be keen to participate in discussions around the ethics of the whole set-up, and some very valuable conversations about chosen family. I understand that this is Arcanjo’s first novel, and it really is a cracker! I loved it for the premise which is irregular but intriguing, the very real thread of humour and some excellent characterisation.

I highly recommend it to you for your upper primary/lower secondary students.