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Editorial Review Product Description
Welcome to the tyrannical city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime.
Goldie Roth has lived in Jewel all her life. Like every child in the city, she wears a silver guardchain and is forced to obey the dreaded Blessed Guardians. She has never done anything by herself and won’t be allowed out on the streets unchained until Separation Day.
When Separation Day is canceled, Goldie, who has always been both impatient and bold, runs away, risking not only her own life but also the lives of those she has left behind. In the chaos that follows, she is lured to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets the boy Toadspit and discovers terrible secrets. Only the cunning mind of a thief can understand the museum’s strange, shifting rooms. Fortunately, Goldie has a talent for thieving.
Which is just as well, because the leader of the Blessed Guardians has his own plans for the museum—plans that threaten the lives of everyone Goldie loves. And it will take a daring thief to stop him. . . .
Museum of Thieves is a thrilling tale of destiny and danger, and of a courageous girl who has never been allowed to grow up—until now.
From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2010: In the city of Jewel, safety and temperance are prized above all other virtues. Goldie, an impetuous girl with a talent for petty thievery, is eagerly awaiting her Separation, in which her silver guardchain connecting her to her parents for safety is finally cut. When tragedy strikes and the city’s sly and deceptive ruler, the Fugleman, cancels all Separations indefinitely, Goldie decides she’s had enough of safety and runs away to the fascinating, mysterious Museum of Dunt. Yet this museum is no dusty educational edifice, as Goldie soon learns: it has moods and feelings like a living being. Its shape-shifting rooms house not historical artifacts, but great and terrible powers that, if unleashed, could destroy the city.In the museum, Goldie meets a quirky cast of misfits, including Toadspit, an Oliver-Twist-like ragamuffin living in the museum; Sinew, a harp-toting spy; and Broo, a talking dog with secret powers of his own. Before long, however, the Fugleman discovers the secret of the museum and tries to use its powers to tighten his control of the city, and it’s up to Goldie, Toadspit, and Broo to stop him. Lian Tanner’s Museum of Thieves is filled with characters who are oddball but meaningful, a dystopia-for-beginners plot that is at once serious and silly, and a pace fast enough to draw in even reluctant readers. The thrilling conclusion teaches that courage and freedom are virtues, too, even if they mean a few scrapes along the way.--Juliet Disparte
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Fantasy & Adventure Fun
I love dystopian stories, especially when they have a little bit of fantasy thrown in. (Or a lot!) This one is written for the middle grade age range and it would be pleasing to boys or girls. The main character is a girl, but she quickly teams up with a boy around her age as well. The Museum itself has magical properties and it can feel and change where rooms are located and where stairs will lead you to. There is an entirely different world once one goes to the right places within the museum.
I was a bit lost as the story didn't ever explain why those that worked at the Museum felt that Goldie (the main character) was needed there, a plot point that seemed to have been overlooked. But, as that didn't really seem to matter in order to move the plot along, it wasn't a major issue. The story did have good moral values, which is another plus for the younger readers and I expect that they will enjoy the powers of the Museum as well.
So close to being good...
Review of the Audiobook
The story opens on the day our main character , Goldie, is supposed to be separated from her Guardian.We soon find out that the children in the city of Jewel are enslaved from when they are very young by the Blessed Guardians, for their own protection of course.The residents of Jewel are extremely cautious people, believing that danger and death lay waiting around every corner, so children are kept under lock and key (literally) until they reach a certain age and have their Separation Day Ceremony.But, on Goldie's Separation Day there is an attack on the city and the Separation Ceremony is canceled.Goldie has a knack for thievery and a certain discontent for the rules of Jewel.She decides to separate herself and venture off on her own, little does she know that she will be swept through to a new life outside of her bondage to a mysterious museum where the inhabitants are as real as she is!
Once Goldie reaches the museum, this story really takes off.The twisting turns of the endless passages and rooms inside make this "Night at the Museum"-esque story on par with books the likes of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Golden Compass.Goldie is awakened to realize her true potential with the help of her new friend and fellow thief Toadspit.Together they set off on an adventure to prevent a war, free the enslaved children of Jewel and save the museum from the horrors it contains.
The monotoned Claudia Black gives a valiant effort in her reading of this book.She gets a bit excited in the climax chapters and hits almost what I'd call a screech at points.Also, there are parts where the characters are singing to the museum to calm it down, Claudia's voice is not calming and does not lend itself to signing, it sounds like she's moaning rather than singing, she has very clear and precise pronunciation and that is her strength.
Claudia's voice probably would have played off better if she had a co-narrator to bounce off from.There is a bit where she is voicing a slaughter bird that I'll not soon forget.
The over all sound quality was pretty good.There were some spots where I could hear echoing from the recording booth she was in.Generally most audiobooks have this at one point or another, and your normal listener probably won't even pick up on it.
Free the Children!
This new fantasy is something of a parable, which can be a didactic choice. But Tanner mostly gets away with it, thanks to some colorful world building and equally colorful characters.
In the city of Jewel, people are so worried about the safety of their children that kids are basically leashed, hooked to the Blessed Guardians by day and their parents by night with fine silver chains. (The harassed children have invented what they call fingertalk for communicating with each other). If children misbehave, they are chained more severely, in heavy Punishment Chains. When children reach the age of twelve, their chains are unfastened. Think of the chains as training wheels, preparing kids for sensible behavior. Only--how awful!
But just as Goldie Roth is on the brink of freedom in the public ceremony known as Separation, conducted by the city's kindly Protector, another official called the Fugleman bursts in with news that his office has been bombed and a child hurt. It is decided that Jewel is unsafe, and the Separation is canceled. Goldie, whose silver chain has been replaced by a white ribbon for the ceremony, can't bear the thought. She impulsively cuts the ribbon and runs away.
Her parents are jailed in the House of Repentance for what she has done, and if Goldie is caught, she will be placed in a reform school called Care. Before that can happen, though, she is taken in by the odd crew of the seemingly decrepit Museum of Dunt--admitted only after they have happily concluded that she is a thief!
And so Goldie starts learning the mysteries of the museum, assisted by a begrudging boy named Toadspit, the other three keepers, and a terrifying yet loyal dog called a brizzlehound. She discovers that the museum contains more than it seems, including swamps and lands and hidden places, and that even its exhibits are in disguise. The museum not only shifts its rooms around, but must be kept quiet and happy, or else it will let its darker contents out into the city. (The place is partly a Pandora's box.) Goldie begins her training to be a museum keeper, which means learning to be a special kind of thief. In one of Tanner's best passages, the girl studies the three kinds of concealment: Concealment by Sham, Concealment by Camouflage, and Concealment by Imitation of Nothingness.
Meanwhile, the Blessed Guardians are hunting for Goldie, helped and directed by the Fugleman, who is one of those handsome smiling villains. The Fugleman wants to take over the city, and he sees the mysterious museum as a means to that end.
I was left with a few minor plot questions unanswered, but the story flows nicely and comes to a full stop (which I appreciate), while still leaving room for another book. Goldie is a determined, courageous main character, and you'll no doubt enjoy watching her make her escape and defeat the bad guys in Museum of Thieves.
Great Read!
I enjoyed this book!!
Goldie lives in the city of Jewel, where people are overprotective with their children.All children are guardchained to the Blessed Guardians.The Blessed Guardians are suppost to take care of them and protect them.Until Separation Day.
As Separation Day arrives, Golde finds it has been cancelled.She runs away.She eventually finds the Museum of Dunt, wth its own mysteries and secrets.Follow Goldie and her new friend Toadspit(just gotta love that name) as they uncover secrets and villianous plans.Plans that threaten everyone.
Magic, Friendshp, danger, mystery, and self discovery---this book has it all!
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