Robbers!

February 1, 2013

Gr 3-6-This addition to the series focuses on some of the most famous crimes and criminals of the past 150 years. Over the course of eight chapters, readers learn about unique bank robberies, art capers, and train heists from around the world, featuring notorious villains such as D.B. Cooper and Willie Sutton and lesser-known thieves alike. Each chapter details a different spectacular crime and includes backstory on the criminal (or criminals) responsible and how they were brought to justice. Angular black-and-white illustrations are sprinkled throughout, sometimes within the text, other times as full-page comics. While most of them fit seamlessly and help tell the story, others don't quite flow with the text. Entertaining from the start, Robbers! should find an audience among readers who like a good heist.-Travis Jonker, Wayland Union Schools, MI

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2012
Grades 4-8 Schroeder's background as a crime writer shows in the smooth flow of these eight tales of notorious robberies. He walks a fine line between clearly reporting the details of the crime and making sure the interest level remains high enough to keep his readers engaged. Schroeder gives a resolution to each of his stories, even those that seem more open-ended, such as the D. B. Cooper hijacking. Simard's illustrations are very clear, with an angled, cartoonish feel that makes them appropriate for the intended audience but not so young looking as to turn off middle-school readers. Rather than just showing the action, the illustrations tell part of the story, making the book a hybrid of comics and prose. Some of the illustrations are oddly placed and impede the narrative flow, but this is a minor complaint for an otherwise enjoyable book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2012
Schroeder chronicles eight high-profile criminals or crimes, mostly highbrow, a couple low-down and dirty. It is difficult to think of these thieves as bad guys, so cunning and audacious were the crimes. A few are full of brio and dash, from the theft of the Mona Lisa to the parachuting hijacker D.B. Cooper, and a couple are solidly in the suave-sophisticated vein, like Willie Sutton and second-story man Arthur Barry. Others are just all business, like the Laguna Niguel heist or England's Great Train Robbery, or sheer thuggery: Victor Desmarais and Leo Martial's Canadian robbery fiasco. Schroeder provides enough detail to get readers involved in more than a sensationalist manner, even delving into some strange psychological consequences of a life in thievery, and Simard sprinkles the action with mostly minimalist panels, all in shades of gray, but with a fun geometrical stylization. The narratives are light, yet full of the devilish details that often sink the best-laid plans, but not frivolous or unaware of their larger context. These are crimes, after all, and hardly of the Robin Hood variety: Barry may have targeted the rich, but the poor didn't benefit. Plus, almost always, guns were involved. Even Sutton, the most benign of highwaymen, quipped, "You can't rob a bank on charm and personality." Our fascination with outlaws lives on in this selection of cleverboots and artful dodgers. (bibliography, index, further reading) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

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