Pilfer Academy
A School So Bad It's Criminal
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Fans of Spy School, Escape From Mr. Lemencello’s Library and Roald Dahl will gobble up this hilarious story about a secret boarding school for thieves-in-training!
Troublemaking George has never heard of Pilfer Academy, a top-secret school for cultivating young crooks, until he's kidnapped as its newest student. The teachers are kooky at best, and naughty does not even begin to describe his sneaky, smart, and morally bankrupt new classmates. Between disguise classes, cracking safes, and DIY gadgets, George becomes an expert bandit and finds true friendship with Tabitha, his new partner-in-crime. But everything is ruined when George comes to a shocking realization: He is just too good-hearted to be a thief!
Unfortunately, not thieving is not an option at Pilfer Academy, and "misbehaving" students face Dean Deanbugle's favorite punishment—the Whirlyblerg! In order to gain their freedom, George and Tabitha must pull the biggest heist the school has ever seen and reveal their true colors not as thieves, but as kind (and, okay, mischievous) kids.
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George's mother has nicknamed him "Naughty George" for his habit of stealing from his siblings and causing chaos at home. These same skills have caught the attention of the secret Pilfer Academy of Filching Arts, which enrolls students by kidnapping them and whisking them off to a castle a stolen one, naturally full of ill-gotten artifacts like Michelangelo's David (the one in Italy is an imitation, readers learn). At Pilfer, students train to become top-notch crooks, and while George, who is snatched as the book begins, gets a nasty new roommate, he also finds a best friend in a talented girl named Tabitha. Magaziner (The Only Thing Worse Than Witches) establishes an anything-can-happen atmosphere from the start (one of George's abductors speaks only in malapropisms, while the other tries to locate the North Star by staring at the sun through binoculars), and the goofiness, pranks, and student sabotage don't let up from there. As George decides whether he truly aspires to a life of crime, Magaziner delivers an entirely enjoyable twist on a classic boarding school adventure. Ages 8 12.
