Middle Grade Sidekick Short: The School for Thieves (2025) by Peter Burns

cover image of The School for Thieves by Peter Burns published by Aladdin, 2025.

The Basics

Page Length: 352

Audiobook Length: ~8.5 hours

Reading Level: Grade 5+

Target Audience: 10-14 (upper middle grade)

Goodreads Score: 4.08 out of 5

Buy it HERE

Setting: London + the Alps (time period a bit ambiguous- ~ alternate history early 20th century)

Genre: Middle Grade Adventure Fiction 

Topics: Orphans, Snatchers, Workhouses, Heists and Cons, Secret Boarding School

Plot: Tom’s used to surviving on his own. He and his band of thieves scrape by on the streets of London—pickpocketing, stealing, and avoiding the snatchers who stalk the city looking for orphans to drag into the workhouses. But when a snatcher raid leaves all his friends captured, Tom truly is alone.

Then a mysterious man appears—someone who seems to know far too much about him—and claims he’s there to recruit Tom into a secret school for thieves. Soon Tom discovers that Beaufort’s School of Thieving Arts has trained the Shadow League, an underground organization of master thieves who influence world events and keep the balance of power in check.

At Beaufort’s, Tom learns to hone his thieving skills and pull off the most masterful cons. But the deeper he’s drawn into the Shadow League, the more he discovers the darkness behind it. Tom must decide whether to expose their secrets and rescue his friends from the workhouse. Will what he’s learned at school be enough to achieve the impossible?

You might like this book if you like:

• Books like Swindle, Spy School, Keeper of the Lost Cities, The Mysterious Benedict Society

• Shows like Carmen Sandiego, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Kim Possible, Spy Kids: Mission Critical

• Movies like Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, Spy Kids, The Kid Who Would Be King

Other books written by this author: White Gold: England's Journey to Rugby World Cup Glory, Behind the Ryder Cup: The Player's Stories (Behind the Jersey Series)

Content

• Language: infrequent mild use

• Sex/Romance: none

• Violence/Scariness: general violence during heists, some characters are shot at, there is a plane crash

• Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: none

Book Talk Read Aloud Section

*What is a book talk? (Watch a how to video here. Read my blog post here)

If you have the physical book, read the author's note - the first break in the prologue.

If you don't, read pages 1-10 (location 47-104) in the Kindle reading sample here.