The Mystery of the Colour Thief is a very atmospheric middle grade novel about a girl dealing with fear and loss and trying to make sense of her world.
Dealing with the grief of her mum in hospital and her Dad fighting with the fear for her life, Izzy's fear conceptualizes as the Colour Thief who steals the colours in her mums murals one by one.
Luckily she meets a boy in a wheelchair, and together they get engrossed in saving a weak cygnet from its siblings.
This book is brilliant for every empathic 10+ year old.

The book was quite fun to read. The author is good at writing and the book was good; liked the characters too.

Izzy felt the only place she could be happy was with her best friend Lou – but when she suddenly shunned her, preferring the company of someone else, Izzy was shattered. The nightmares woke her every night – the shadowy man who took a different colour, one after the other, leaving her distraught and filled with guilt.

Izzy’s mother was in a coma in hospital; her dad was worried and unhappy, a shadow of his old self, and Izzy was consumed by feelings that a twelve-year-old shouldn’t have to feel. The day she met her new next door neighbour, Toby, who was wheelchair bound, her life started to change. They went to the nearby creek where they found a swan and her baby cygnets – one was struggling; a little smaller than the rest. Toby named him Spike and together Izzy and Toby worked out a way to feed him and keep him safe. They made unlikely friends – Izzy, Toby and Milo, Izzy’s devoted and playful puppy.

But what of the colour thief? Izzy knew the colour was going from her life; she just didn’t know how to stop it. Would Toby be her saviour? Could he work out how to help Izzy regain her life and her equilibrium?

The Mystery of the Colour Thief is a wonderful story of grief, guilt and overcoming fears by author Ewa Jozefkowicz; of compassion, friendship and love. I flew through the pages, finishing in a couple of hours – a young adult novel about the realities of life and how to combat some of the harshness in a positive manner. The Mystery of the Colour Thief is my first by this author, and won’t be my last. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for my digital ARC to read and review..