Eagar, Lindsay. Patron Thief of Bread. Candlewick, 05/2022. 448pp. Fiction. GRADES 5 – 9. $19.99. 978-1-5362-0468-1. OUTSTANDING.
Eight-year-old Duck lives with a raggedy band of pickpockets and petty thieves, all children, who call themselves the Crowns. While barely scraping by in the ruins of an unfinished cathedral, Gnat, the group’s leader, devises a clever scheme. With Duck hired on as the baker’s apprentice, she can steal both bread and money to keep the Crowns fed and clothed. In a setting suggesting a good-sized town in the Middle Ages, the author has created a magical tale of love and loyalty told in turn by an unnamed narrator and a very opinionated gargoyle. Richly described with distinctive characters and settings, this imaginative tale pulls readers into a very believable “once upon a time.”
Nora Hale—Retired