plus of course, a sister who finds her long-lost brother amidst extenuating circumstances.

Meanwhile, there's big clockwork machines and giant sea serpents, huge towers and vast deserts, brain-washed adults and enslaved children, hunking gorilla-ish goons and sneaky back-stabbing thieves. Even though we suspect good will win over evil, the author's irreverent style keeps us on our toes - we won't be surprised if all's not well in the end, the author never promises that. The story climaxes to a satisfactory conclusion. And, a spit-fire of a princess who leads a rag-tag bunch or rebel children to stop the villain. Ravens, brave and loyal, waiting to restore their honor. A villain so terrible he is ready to rid the world of children. A kindly professor who cleverly thrusts Peter in the thick of it, to find his destiny. Horse-cat-knight? Yes! He is all three in one, an unfortunate outcome of a curse he has been trying to undo unsuccessfully.Ī verse in a bottle, the message clearly urgent yet missing the last word to make sense. And, a horse-cat knight who arrives there quite by accident. Who should he meet there but the haberdasher himself. He is whisked into an island when he tries on the first pair of eyes. He happens upon a mysterious haberdasher from whom he steals a box with 3 pairs of magical eyes - gold, onyx and emerald. He can get in anywhere, open any lock, steal anything, and hence his last name, Nimble. Ten year old Peter Nimble is a blind thief, and a fantastic one at that. Without the cloying sweetness that can sometimes sneak into YA literature, and without horrific sensationalism that can get distasteful, the book has a direct charm that respects the young readers and their capacity to appreciate a well-narrated story. Disgusted, the sailors killed the bird and delivered the child to the authorities of a nearby port town.' Perched on the boy’s head was a large raven, which had, presumably, pecked out his eyes. 'One morning, a group of drunken but good-hearted sailors spotted him bobbing in a basket alongside their ship.

With wit, humor, irony, plus fantastic pace of story progression, and a handful of quirky characters, the book is a pleasure to read. With a brilliantly unconventional dive into an unlikely hero at the very start of the book, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes immediately appealed to me. 'Now, for those of you who know anything about blind children, you are aware that they make the very best thieves.'

Peter nimble series book 3