The Magic Thief
Sarah Prineas
2008 by HarperCollins
ISBN – 9780061375873
Genre – Fantasy
Age – Middle School
3.7 Stars
Conn is an orphan and a thief, living on the streets, and constantly hungry. His luck changes when he tries to steal a powerful wizard’s locus magicalicus right out of his pocket. When the stone that is so powerful, it should have killed Conn, leaves him alive, Nevery the wizard becomes intrigued. He takes Conn home and makes him an apprentice. This is when Conn learns that the city runs on magic, but the magic is going away. On top of figuring out what is happening to the magic, Conn must also find his own locus magicalicus and prove himself as a worthy wizard.
This book was highly decent. It took a long time to get going, but once it did it had a quick pace. I love stories that are have an old time English feel to them, and this definitely did. I liked Conn as a character and his example that you can be anything despite where you come from! I also like that the relationships were not always easy to build, it would seem awfully fake if everyone just loved this young thief turned wizard overnight. I didn’t think it had an incredible amount of depth beyond that. Luckily I am a sucker for setting and characters. The story just didn’t amaze me. The end felt a tiny bit contrived, like it had to end quickly, so it got wrapped in a way that felt rushed. On another note, this is the first book of my Reading Explorers Book Club here at the library. I’ll be interested to see how engaging it is to the 9-13 year old.
A Curious Bookshelf 
The storyline sounds interesting to me, and I am a sucker for wizards and magic so I added the whole series to my Goodreads shelf. Thanks for letting me discover this promising series!