Pickpocket

by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Overview

After his younger sister dies, 17-year-old Jean-Luc goes into a downward spiral.

He is sent away for the summer to live with his uncle in a small town on the coast of France. On his first day there he meets the beautiful Selina and decides that this summer might not be so bad after all. That is until he realizes that she stole his wallet. Jean-Luc does some detective work and eventually tracks her down. Selina confesses that she and other runaway teens are being exploited by a mysterious figure known only as Le Patron. Jean-Luc devises a plan to help Selina escape, but will the two of them be able to outwit the dangerous criminal?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459828001
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	01/19/2021
Series:	Orca Soundings Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Lexile:	HL500L (what's this?)
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Karen Spafford-Fitz is the author of several novels for young people, including Unity Club, Vanish and Dog Walker in the Orca Currents series. She lives in Edmonton.

Editorial Reviews

An accessible, engaging tale of redemption.

Kirkus Reviews

Themes of social and family issues, empathy, friendship, and redemption are explored through the text. Serious classroom discussions can include the harsh reality of the pickpocket trade, youth street crimes, extortion, and exploitation.”

BC Books for Schools

This accessible, fast-moving story features a unique setting and a moving story of personal redemption. Recommended for high school collections in need of hi-lo materials.

School Library Journal

An engaging story that combines adventure, action, and an interesting destination. Highly Recommended.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

2020-10-27
A troubled Canadian teen is packed off to stay with his great-uncle in Nice, France, for the summer in this reluctant reader offering.

After the death of his sister, Jean-Luc took up with new friends who are constantly getting into trouble. When his fed-up parents return from a trip to find their house trashed by a party Jean-Luc threw, they send him off to work with Henri, a caterer, so that he can earn the money to reimburse them for the damage. Jean-Luc’s path back from being the bad kid is pretty assured from the start, as his self-awareness and empathy for others peek through in small ways, finally emerging in full when he learns about the terrible situation of a beautiful girl named Selina. They meet when she picks his pocket, and, when he learns she is being exploited and abused, he decides he has to help her. The vivid setting of Old Nice is its own character in this quickly paced novel, and the plotting moves along steadily until it ends on an abrupt note. Jean-Luc and his co-worker Marcel, who spends much of the novel working up the nerve to ask out a girl he likes, are the most fleshed-out characters. Unfortunately, Selina seems to only be there to be saved. Characters seem to be White by default.

An accessible, engaging tale of redemption. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews