The Pearl Thief
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
STARS Citation
Wein, Elizabeth, "The Pearl Thief" (2017). Diverse Families. 1425.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1425