The School for Thieves
by Peter Burns
Intermediate    Aladdin/Simon    352 pp.
8/25    9781665982283    $18.99

When Tom Morgan’s small band of street children is kidnapped and sent to the workhouse, he has no luck getting them out until a man known as the Corsair recruits him to be a student in Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts, “or Thieves School, if you must.” The Corsair, a teacher at the school, wants to bring in fresh energy to bestir the legacy students, and he promises Tom will learn what he needs to free the kidnapped children. Tom accepts but immediately finds an enemy in Vincent Crowe, a senior member of the influential Shadow League offended that a “street rat” has taken the place of a colleague’s son. Over the course of the school year, Tom survives booby-trapped wilderness exercises, is taught financial scams, and tests himself in escape and evasion, all while competing in the House Challenge for a chance to represent Beaufort in the International Shadow Cup. As in many good school stories, the heart of the action concerns Tom clicking with his friend group and facing down the bullies; there are also Hogwarts-esque subplots about extracurricular conspiracies that threaten the League itself, requiring bravery and grit from our hero. Frequent heist set pieces (with an especially clever one at the climax) show off the cunning of the students’ trickery. A clue in the front matter hints at future installments in the series.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.