Heist Society by Ally Carter
Carter, A. (2010). Heist society. New York: Hyperion Books.
A friend of mine is a high school theatre teacher who annually has his students create and perform a pantomime. Every single year, a large number of students pantomime finding a lost wallet, quickly putting it in their pocket, and then running away. Almost every week now, I see news broadcasts of large groups of teenagers who go into a store, blatantly steal items right off the shelves, and run out laughing, knowing that the sheer number of their group prevents the victimized store from doing anything to stop them.
Consequently, this frame of reference kept me from enjoying Heist Society by Ally Carter. It’s ironic, because I’ve always loved books and movies about thieves like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and even found myself rooting for the robbers. But these were adult thieves. When I started reading about Kat Bishop, who is an accomplished teenage art thief, I just couldn’t get swept along with the story. Admittedly, Kat’s recruitment of teenage accomplices was reminiscent of Fagin’s loveable gang of pickpockets; and her protective attitude toward her father had an almost Robin Hood – style nobility about it. But despite it all, I came away worrying that young readers would find this romanticized portrayal of thievery to be inspirational rather than simply escapist literature.
Google Images: allycarter.com
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