Thieves of Weirdwood is middle grade fiction at its best

Somewhere between a Rorschach test and a literary M.C. Escher lays Thieves of Weirdwood. The back cover of the book says to beware your imagination. That’s a very apt thing to keep a hold of, or alternately, let go and completely surrender to this incredibly engaging and creative book. Thieves of Weirdwood works on so many level that it plays out like a movie inside your head as you’re reading it. While I was reading the book I simultaneously wanted to read the book quickly so I could find out what happens; but I also wanted to take my time so that the book would last longer.  

My reaction was all the more surprising because elements of the plot exist in other middle grade fiction books. There is the pair of friends, other worldly elements, a mirror-world and the fate of the world is at stake. The fact that author Christian McKay Heidicker was able to create something so entirely original and utterly thrilling is a testament to his craft.     

Arthur and Wally are our titular thieves, but their hobby or erstwhile profession is about all that they have in common. They’ve been raised differently, have hobbies that are unique and act as polar opposites in most circumstances. Kingsport is where the kids are from and resembles a turn of the 20^th century town with a bit of a steam punk vibe. There’s a dark criminal underbelly that rules certain parts of the city and as hopeless as aspects of the town seem, it’s home.  

The two boys team up to do a quick robbery. One of them is going to use the money to help his brother who is in jail, while the other one is pay off debts to the mob or give it to his potentially deadbeat dad-whichever comes first. As with any theft job in the city, things quickly go south. The job is more of a puzzle than a straight job of thieving and once they figure out what the real treasure is they open a door to another world.  

This new place is as grand and regal as Kingsport is dank and ridden with rats who until recently carried the plague. This new world has all of the trappings of a place that they’d want to explore, but there’s treasure to steal. 

As with any mirror world, these two thieves and their talents don’t work as well in this new place. They’re forced to operate using their own talents, meet monsters, ghosts and humans who just might be monsters.  

Heidicker plays out the alternate worlds as expertly as any that we’ve read in middle grade fiction. In addition to the written words and descriptions, the font is different in parts of the book when the action flips between worlds. This is an excellent way to help any reader, but especially those middle school readers who might not be used to a book moving as quickly or on such a grand scope as this.  

Thieves of Weirdwood also breaks the third wall, to an extent. It’s also one of the few books in the past couple of years that we’ve read that genuinely threw several plot twists our way. As an adult reading the book, you’d think that a 50-something year old would be able to see things coming. Again, to the author’s credit there are a couple left-field hits that change the direction of certain characters or the book. 

When you’re about 30 pages from the end you’ll have no idea as to how the story can effectively tie up the story lines, but it does. It does so in a big bow that’s all its own. Thankfully, said bow also leaves a thread that’s plausible and opens up the world to another book.  

Thieves of Weirdwood is great for upper-elementary school readers and up. Much like the other engrossing books for this age group by Rick Riordan, Brandon Mull or J.K. Rowling it’s one that will start for ages 9 and continue without a group that won’t have fun reading it.  

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