Friday, July 1, 2011

BOOK REVIEW: The Keepers: Museum of Thieves

Title: The Keepers: Museum of Thieves


Author: Lian Tanner

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

RRP: $15.99

ISBN: 9781742376561

Release Date: July 2011

Pages: 384



Description:

In the city of Jewel, impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime. Goldie Roth is impatient and bold. When she escapes the clutches of the Blessed Guardians to find haven at the Museum of Dunt, an unforgettable adventure begins that will unlock hidden mysteries, dark secrets and awaken dangerous enemies. The thrilling first book in The Keepers trilogy.

Description

'You're in the Museum now - and ANYTHING can happen!'

Goldie Roth lives in the city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime. But Goldie is both bold and impatient. She runs away to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets a boy named Toadspit and discovers dangerous secrets. A monstrous brizzlehound stalks the museum's corridors, and only a thief can find the way through its strange, shifting rooms.

Goldie and Toadspit have a talent for thieving. Which is just as well, because the treacherous Fugleman has his own plans for the museum, plans that threaten the lives of everyone Goldie loves. And it will take a very bold thief to stop him.

A thrilling tale of action and adventure.

'An exciting, genuinely transportive read.' The Age

'The mystery, the suspense, the action, all in one book - it just makes me want to keep reading and reading! It never gets boring and you just have to know what happens next.' - Willis, 13

'I loved it because it took me to a world of my own ... An amazing, captivating novel.' - Ryan, 13

'The way Lian Tanner uses her imagination is awesome.' - Paige, 13

'Thrilling' Australian Women's Weekly

Awards

Winner, 2010 Aurealis Awards - Children's Fiction

Notable Book, 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year - Younger Readers

Shortlisted, 2011 Speech Pathology Australia's Book of the Year - Upper Primary

Shortlisted, 2011 Indie Book Award - Children's

________________________________________

Lian Tanner is a children's author and playwright. She has worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, a community arts worker, an editor and a professional actor. It took her a while to realise that all of these jobs were really just preparation for being a writer. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania, with a small tabby cat and lots of friendly neighbourhood dogs. She has not yet mastered the art of Concealment by the Imitation of Nothingness, but she is quite good at Camouflage.

Review:

In the city of Jewel, children are precious possessions. They are kept safe, attached to either their parents, the Blessed Guardians, or to their bed at night until their official Separation Day. The dangers of freedom, for children, include slave-trading pirates or death from terrible diseases. We meet our hero, Goldie Roth just as she is about to be undergo Separation. The age of Separation has just been lowered from 16 years to 12, and not everyone is happy about this. Alas, just as Goldie is about to be freed from her mother, an explosion causes the ceremony to be cancelled and Goldie runs away without thinking of the consequences.

But just as Goldie Roth is on the brink of freedom in the public ceremony known as Separation, conducted by the city's kindly Protector, another official called the Fugleman bursts in with news that his office has been bombed and a child hurt. It is decided that Jewel is unsafe, and the Separation is cancelled. Goldie, whose silver chain has been replaced by a white ribbon for the ceremony, can't bear the thought. She impulsively cuts the ribbon and runs away.

The Keepers is a brilliant start to what looks like it could be a long series of books for the YA market.

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