Tanner, Lian.
MUSEUM OF THIEVES
New York : Delacorte, 2010
IL 3-6, RL 4.7
ISBN 0385739052

(2 booktalks)

In the city of Jewel, all children must wear guard chains to protect them until they are 16 years old.  The chains link them to the Blessed Guardians until the formal Separation ceremony releases them.  But on her ceremony day, Goldie finds out that she will not be separated.  Civil unrest has caused a delay in the ceremony.  But Goldie is not going to wait.  She runs away and finds herself in the Museum of Dunt.  She learns to steal and get by.  She even becomes a leader in the museum.  And she may even have the ability to save her city.

Booktalk #2

Welcome to the city of Jewel.  Jewel is strict society where all children under age 12 must wear long thin silver guard chains until they are twelve years of age.   It is the blessed Guardians that keep the children safe in this land by use of strict control.   Children who misbehave are made to wear the heavy gold punishment chains.   The punishment chains are no stranger to Goldie Roth who is about to be separated from her guard chains now that she is 12 years old.   The ceremony is stopped and Goldie manages to escape.  She finds safe hiding in the Museum of Dunt; a strange and living museum of history.    In the museum she meets a young boy who also ran away called Toadspit, and others including: Olga Ciavolga, Herro Dan, Sinew, “Morg” the Slaughterbird, a Brizzlehoud called “Broo”.   In the museum - what lies beyond the “dirty gate”?  Will Goldie and her new friends be able to save the people of Jewel?   (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award nominee, 2011-2012)