Loot (urspr publ 2014; utgåvan 2015)

Twelve-year-old March McQuinn has spent a life on the run, with his famous cat burglar father, Alfie. He’s learned a lot from his dad and has even played a role in some of the heists. Of course, March doesn’t do the planning, or the actual breaking and entering, or the stealing. But, when he shows up to help his father at the end of a big robbery, he is surprised that his father is falling from a roof. Before his father passes on, he says a few seemingly random words to March and gives him a moonstone from a famous heist he had been involved in years before. Now March is alone in Amsterdam and worried that someone is watching him. After taking the important things he needs and some notes his father had written, March follows one of the clues to an underground event and watches in amazement as a woman named Blue and a girl do some fascinating music, ribbon and tumbling work. The police break it up though, and this leads to March being taken into custody. The girl doing the ribbon work turns out to be his long lost twin sister, Jules. Neither of them knew the other existed. What other mysteries had Alfie hidden? Jules and March are sent back to America and put in a home for children. They meet two other kids who quickly become their friends. When Jules goes missing, and March recognizes her on tv in the footage of a major jewel heist, he wonders whose side Jules is on and why. Now March is determined to find the rest of the moonstones hinted at in the note his father left him. Even more enticing is the reward of millions of dollars promised to him by the woman whose cursed moonstones were stolen by March’s dad and fellow thieves years before. Unfortunately, there are other people who want those gems. Will March and Jules work together or stay on separate sides? Will he and his friends be able to travel around the county in less than a week rounding up all the gems in time for the full moon? Are the stones really cursed and will the prophecy his father was told years before come true? Read this fast paced book to find out!

Loot is the first book I’ve read by Jude Watson. Looking at the cover I knew it was bound to be a book filled with action. I liked March and the other main characters. While they all had their flaws- they also had their strengths. The danger and excitement definitely kept me turning the pages. I couldn’t help but wonder if the kids would be successful on their quest for the moonstones, and if the lady on the other end of the deal would keep her promise and reward them with money. I like the threat of the curse and the magical moonstones were intriguing. They sounded beautiful. I would recommend this book to people ages nine and up who like a good adventure, and are okay with some of the action and stunts being unbelievable. It reminded me of the action movies my older brother likes to watch- very entertaining, even if you can’t picture it all really happening in real life. This is the first book in the series and I look forward to reading the next one.
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Pretty decent book, main plot is that he is the son of a thief who's father dies suddenly and is left to fulfill his dying wish which leads him on a crazy roller coaster of an adventure and discovering more about his own history. I thought it was good but it really was a bit too dumbed down, I felt, or really that the language was too childish. I thought the plot was good but I really can't see it being an eye catching read for a majority of students.

Isinglass Teen Reads 2015-2016

(117)

When March McQuinn's father Alfie, a notorious jewel thief, falls from a roof in Amsterdam, he leaves his almost thirteen-year old son with a valuable moonstone and some instructions: "find jewels." Except what he really said was "Find Jules," March's twin sister he didn't know about and hasn't seen since the two of them were babies. But the other instructions he gives before dying might as well have been "find jewels," since his clues lead him to continue the family business.

Loot will no doubt please a lot of readers. It's got two long-lost twins who are now orphans and team up with Darius and Izzy, two kids they meet in a Social Services group home, and embark on a high-stakes quest to retrieve the seven moonstones stolen by their father years earlier. They pull off improbable heists in New York and San Francisco, always staying a step ahead of the cops through their ingenuity and street smarts. But other, more dangerous thieves are also after the moonstones, and they only have until the next blue moon in order to break a prophecy. So, if you were to make a list of plot elements expected to be in such a book, this one would probably have all of them.

It's fairly fun and fast-paced but also quite formulaic (kind of Dan Brown for MG readers). But while I thought the story was okay, I'm bothered by the questionable morality. Stealing is portrayed as fun and honorable despite the dangers, and the victims as deserving: "He thought of his father, who had a strange sense of honor about his targets. He had moved through the world of the wealthy but never been part of it. He stole from those who had been rich so long, they had forgotten ordinary cares. He stole from those who lived in houses... plump with silk cushions and bursting with too much of everything. He stole from those who wrecked the lives of others and dusted off their hands and said, 'It's business.' March had seen it again and again, in fancy restaurants and hotels, so often, he could smell it: the ease of privilege inherited and unearned" (from page 182 of the advance copy). I guess it's kind of fun if you can look past all that without bothering your conscience about such sticky questions. ( )