The Pearl Thief

The Pearl Thief

Authors

Elizabeth Wein

Publisher

Hyperion

Publication Year

2017

ISBN

9781484717165

Pages

336 pages

Genre

historical

Format

novel

Item Type

Fiction

Annotation

When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she'd imagined won't be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather's estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family's employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital. Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister, Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they've grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation. Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.

Grade Level

6-8; 9-12

Lexile Measure

860L

Diversity Topics

Family Relationships; Culture/Ethnicity; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Family member death; Multicultural; Bisexuality; death of a grandparent; death of a grandfather; different cultures; bisexual teenager

Main Character

female teenager

Race/Ethnicities

Scottish Gpysy and Traveller / White

Family Formation

mother and father

LGBTQ+

bisexual female

Awards

Carnegie Medal, 2018, Long List, Children's Book
Cybils Awards, 2017, Nominee, Young Adult Fiction

Keywords

Scotland; theft; injury; summer; gypsy-equivalent; hospital; castles; debt

Diversity Impact

indirect

The Pearl Thief

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