Highway Robbery

Starred review from June 8, 2009
A young beggar recalls the momentous night he happened to be in the right place when a stranger galloped into town, promising a gold coin if the boy would watch his horse until he returned. The unnamed narrator has his loyalty tested repeatedly as passersby can't help being intrigued by the incongruous pair—barefoot urchin and glorious steed (“I had never in my life been offered so much money by so many people, and yet I still hadn't seen a penny of it”). Finally, the king's men arrive, announcing that the horse, Black Bess, belongs to the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin. Now what? Staying with the horse will surely lead to Turpin's arrest. Thompson (The New Policeman
) frames the story as a sale—after Turpin is arrested elsewhere, the boy tries to sell the horse—and in doing so, she introduces a host of ambiguities. Was the boy as true to Turpin as he said? Is the horse really Black Bess? It's a suspenseful and tautly written story as is, and Thompson's sly twist makes it all the richer. Ages 10–up.

June 1, 2009
Gr 3-5-In this slight yet entertaining novel, a young unnamed urchin explains to a potential buyer how he came into possession of the horse he's offering for sale. It seems that a wild-looking gentleman asked him to care for it and not move from that spot until he returned in exchange for a guinea. Even while enchanted with the prospect of more money than he's ever known, the boy considers the offers of passersby to take the animal off his hands and deals with the moral quandary of whether he should sell it for more than the owner promised him. As he continues to wait the gentleman's return, he learns from a soldier that the man he encountered was actually the legendary highway robber Dick Turpin, and that the horse is the equally legendary Black Bess. The story that the boy spins has the structure of a classic folktale. Thompson leaves a sense of ambiguity as to whether it is true, or if it comes from an unusually active imagination. Readers are left to decide whether the urchin is telling the truth or is performing a major act of highway robbery on readers. Teachers might use this tale as a perfect example of an unreliable narrator. Black-and-white drawings capture and accentuate the period feel and clarify the Victorian-era setting."Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
Grades 4-7 Thompson, responsible for superb modern Irish fairy taleslikeThe New Policeman (2007)and Creature of the Night (2009), displays a lighter side in this diverting short novel. A wee guttersnipes fortunes are changed when a dashing stranger plunges into the alleyway on a magnificent steed. The man offers the boy a golden guinea to watch his horse for him, and the lad then tells the story of his eventful night standing guard, which includes run-ins with seedy swindlersand a group of soldiers who arefast on the heels of the legendary highwayman, Dick Turpin. Could the lad really be watching overTurpinsfamedhorse, Black Bess? Thompson delivers a delicious twist in the end that doesnt so much answer that question as turn it on its head. A fine exercise in storytelling, this clever book will suit fans of classically dashing adventure, eventhough the whole plot consists of little more than a lad standing in place watching his feet freeze. Dress dramatic and finely inked drawings, in the style of Chris Riddell, add some essential spice to the tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)