Lindsay Eagar

Story of Duck, a pickpocket in Medieval Europe who is found as a baby floating in the river and adopted by a gang of children pickpockets called the Crowns. She grows up learning their trade as they move from town to town and eventually 8 years later, they return to the place where she was found. The leader of the gang Gnat uses Duck to embark on a very ambitious scheme to keep his gang fed by setting up Duck as an apprentice to a kind yet half-blind baker called Giselle. Once Duck is working in the bakery, she will pass bread to the Crowns and steal coins from the day's takings as the baker isn't very good with sums. This brilliant plan goes off without a hitch but after a few months Duck begins to be torn between the loving environment provided by Giselle and what she thinks is her "family" in the attention she received from the Crowns. Then Gnat strikes a bargain with a ruthless rival gang to rob Giselle of everything and Duck must make a heart wrenching choice...
So where does the gargoyle fit in with all this? He watches from the unfinished, unnamed cathedral in the town and wishes he could do his duty of protecting those that need protecting...like Duck. Will he get his chance as he seems to be immovable, set in stone no matter how hard he prays to move.

I loved Duck's tale which had me, the reader silently yelling at her to not give in to the demands of the Crowns and aching for this lonely little girl character Lindsay had created who just wanted a family. This part of the book was wonderful and really evoked the smells, sounds and sights of that era. However, I found the gargoyle's part a bit self indulgent and waffly. I think that children who are reading this book will skip over the gargoyle's parts because they are repetitive and he doesn't actually do anything ( spoiler alert) until the very end of the novel.
A nice one for kids who like historical almost fantasy novels.… (mehr)