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FINISHED:
Meloy, Colin. (2017). The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.
[In Marseille, France, 1961, Charlie Fisher, the neglected twelve
year old son of an American Consul General, falls in with a Lebanese boy named
Amir and a crew of other young, multicultural pickpockets. Looking to forge a life of his own, as well
as find some friends, Charlie is brought into the fold first by running center
field (watching and learning) and then as a duke man (the one that all of the
other pickpockets bring their spoils to), all while trying to keep the two
diametrically opposed sides of his life from colliding. Meticulously crafted and thoroughly
researched, vivid descriptions rife with specific detail bring the streets of
the French city to life, and an occasional authorial direct address adds further
humor to an already amusing tale. Just
when you begin to wonder where it’s all going, a doozy of a bombshell is
dropped two thirds of the way through which excitingly lays the groundwork for
the final path ahead, while Carson Ellis’s occasional full page illustrations
feel period to the ‘60s, often recalling the rounded figures of Peter Max and
Daniel Pinkwater. Meloy continually
brings up socio-economics as the ragtag band of misfits see themselves as Robin
Hoods to a certain degree, with Amir saying, “Way I see it, we’re evening the
score a bit, yeah?... To take the rich folks down a peg”, and the Code of the
Whiz Mob being that “no one facing financial hardship, marginalization, or
oppression of any sort should be targeted.”
When Charlie’s hard-honed skills are put to a final test near the end,
we get a true, step by step insight into the art of the steal, and luckily,
included at the end is an extensive (and quite necessary!) glossary of whiz
lingo.]
STARTED:
Ness, Patrick. (2017). Release. New York: HarperCollins.
[.]
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