The Thief of Worlds is by veteran children’s author Bruce Coville. This is a middle grade hero’s journey with an eclectic cast of characters that is gathered together in a chase winding through different worlds. Perhaps it is a case of overly high expectations for an experienced author, but this story felt oddly flat–despite have elements that should have been exciting. The narrative style was more “tell” than “show”, and the first-person narrator felt oddly impersonal. Perhaps a younger reader will not be put off by the bland voicing. The narrative did pick up and become more interesting at about the three-quarters mark as the nature of the enemy was revealed. Overall, an okay read, but one that didn’t inspire a lot of enthusiasm or passion in this reader.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Random House Children’s Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 1 religious exclamation.
Violence/Gore: Reported death of a parent; ill person spits blood into a tissue; report of being imoblized by magic; thousands of dead fish; character grabbed and locked/tied up; mention of a legend about God who primed a world’s water source with his blood; threat to burn someone; individual passes out from cold; invisible souls try to grab at characters; character hit and flung across room; report of how a world’s inhabitants destroyed each other and their world; character is bound against their will; character is shocked and another tackles her to save her; character strikes another with a bolt of lightning, causing death; character melts away; massive destruction;
Sex/Nudity: A new fantasy creature is met and when asked her sex, she says she hasn’t decided yet and that in their world they decide when they grow up and it depends on how they feel; character kissed to wake them from a spell.
Mature Subject Matter:
World destruction, death of a parent, drought, natural disasters, war.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Reference to a parent being killed by a drunk driver.
