A 9 year old's take on “CrookHaven - The School for Thieves

Recently, I came across a 13-year-old Gabriel, who is a brilliant pickpocket, a skill which he used to keep himself and his grandma’s often empty belly not quite so empty. Then one day, he’s caught. (Here, Grandma is the name of the old woman who adopted him when he was abandoned by his parents.) But instead of getting arrested, he is invited by the mysterious Caspian Crook to attend Crookhaven – which is a school for thieves. This was my introduction to the world of Crookhaven, beautifully authored by JJ Arcanjo in a series of books. At Crookhaven, students are trained in lock-picking, forgery, and 'crimnastics', all to do good out in the world, by conning the bad and giving back to the innocent. He also learned the names of his parents in the second term of the school and met his mother, which was quite a revelation. He met his mother in the school library during the II term of his first year. He hadn’t met his father in this book yet but had seen him. According to the book, Gabriel’s father was dressed in a black swimming suit that covered him from head to toe except for his eyes.

This book was a good read as I thoroughly enjoyed the plot as well as the way the lines were written. Some of my favorite lines from the book are:

"So this is really a school for criminals"

It was meant as a question, though it came out more as an accusation.

"We are so much more than that,"

Caspian said, sitting in a plush leather chair and gesturing for Gabriel to sit in a similar one across the table.

"We are a home for the forgotten, a sanctuary for the lost, and ... yes, a training ground for the greatest crooks of the future".

I like these lines specifically because this is the start of the first conversation between Gabriel and the headmaster 'CASPIAN CROOK'. I was taken by surprise when Gabriel decided to join Crookhaven and agreed to abandon his grandma without her knowing. It is interesting to hear that in order to learn new skills he lied to his grandma. But he only did it so that he could help her and take revenge on the Merciers on behalf of her later.

If I was Gabriel then I would join the school without any second thought. Here’s another dialogue that I liked: “Here we will teach you to do wrong, but only so that one day you will put the world right”. This was the headmaster's first line in the speech he was giving to the Crookling (First year students) Merits (students who were the first in their family to get admitted to Crookhaven) when the Crookling Legacies (students who were not the first in their family to get admitted to Crookhaven) arrived during Gabriel's first year as a Crookling Merit. Since the headmaster said this roughly, I thought the next chapter would be adventurous.

The story took quite an interesting turn during the events. However, I think that if Gabriel had known the fake names of his parents, the story would have been more exciting and adventurous because Crookhaven's Alumni would then know where the Nameless gang is as they are a group of highly murderous crooks. Also, if the story had been a bit more adventurous and maybe if there could some secret panels too, then the book would have become a bestseller!

Hridaan Biswas,

Birla Shishu Vihar

Grade 4