The Talent Thief
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- €10.99
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- €10.99
Publisher Description
A girl with the ability to borrow other people’s talents must use her powers to find her own spotlight in The Talent Thief, a wish-fulfilling middle-grade novel from Mike Thayer, the author of The Double Life of Danny Day.
Tiffany Tudwell is cursed. She once tripped over a backpack and fell face-first into a trashcan. She had pink eye on picture day. One time she tried to hold back a sneeze and farted on the cutest boy in class. She longs for the spotlight, but it’s safer to stay hidden in the shadows where the curse can't reach her and no one can make fun of her.
Until the night two meteors collide over her backyard giving Tiffany the ability to steal people’s talents for a day—like stealing mean girl Candace’s beautiful singing voice in the middle of play rehearsal, or drawing an incredible self-portrait after borrowing the teacher’s pencil. Her power even gets the attention of the most popular boy in school, the smooth-talking Brady Northrup.
But her powers can’t solve everything—or can they? When a local philanthropist announces a fundraiser contest, Tiffany, with Brady’s help, decides to use her powers to save her dad’s failing planetarium. And maybe discover her own talent along the way...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A meteoric collision gives a beleaguered 12-year-old the ability to take on others' talents in an uplifting contemporary fantasy from Thayer (The Double Life of Danny Day). Two years after being seemingly cursed by her grandmother's deathbed wish ("Let the world see my Shining Star"), Tiffany Tudwell often finds herself thrust negatively into the spotlight, not to mention bullied by "evil popularity overlord" Candace Palmer. Attempting to avoid attention, Tiffany stops rocking her funky style and embraces life behind the scenes, successfully coordinating raids in online RPG Warcraft of Empires. She also worries about how her single father will keep both their mobile home and his passion project at the town's struggling planetarium. But after witnessing two meteors' collision, Tiffany finds she can inexplicably borrow others' talents for a short time: she sings like a soloist after holding talented Candace's microphone, and briefly becomes both an expert card shuffler and a "dodgeball ninja." And when a campaign to save the planetarium launches, Tiffany must find a way to help while considering the consequences of her newfound powers. Vividly wrought characters—especially Tiffany's gaming counterparts and her nonagenarian pals at Sunny Vistas Assisted Living—and the protagonist's dryly comic voice contribute to this charming novel's exploration of gifts and friendships. Protagonists read as white. Ages 8–12.
