This is my favourite middle grade book of the year so far! Great characters, a secret school and wonderful friendships. Am about to buy the second one.

Oliver Twists meets Harry Potter.
Secret boarding school ✔️
Quirky lessons ✔️
Fun challenges ✔️
Loveable rogues ✔️
Robin Hood ethics ✔️
Couldn’t put it down

A thrilling fun mystery adventure - kept you going right to the end and left you wanting more - can’t wait for the next instalment.

A book that broke me eventually, at about a quarter of the way through. It's an intriguing set-up, a decent concept, but one delivered almost poorly, and certainly adult-proof for this adult reviewer. We start well, with a young lad pickpocket bested at the game by someone else, who follows the trail of clues to the typical magical-seeming boarding school – a boarding school for thieves, hackers and crooks. But thieves, hackers and crooks of the right mindset, who break the laws only for the common good or to right a wrong faced by a loved one. But this comes with a peril the book cannot get over. "Can we really do it? [] Can we put the world right?" our hero thinks to himself. No, lad, you can't.

That socialist leaning is met with a bunch of kids that just have to be as diverse as possible – our lead is defined as olive-skinned, which of course has given him a bigoted response every day of his life before now, because that is what life is like for this kind of fictional character. "Can we put the world right?" No, lad, woke books can't. Not when inclusion is foregrounded above plot, at least.

And that plot was the biggest hurdle, for sure. The first chapter or three are fine, but beyond then it's a plod downhill. The whole writing was clearly set-up through exposition, and not drama. Character came through discussion, not event. The chapters of procedural and description, in place of drama, were clearly going to continue too long for my tastes, and when we got to the Sorting Pebbles, well I knew where this kind of thing was heading.

This is not alone in suffering as a Book One – the world has to be established, and then in subsequent books the adventure can cover every page. But boy there are better ways to establish this world than the output here, which I see has had several reviewers talk of a slow start. Another day I might – might – have had a bit more patience with this, but it certainly isn't as good as it needed to be.

This review was written by our nine year old reviewer who was extremely lucky to receive a physical copy from the publisher:

I absolutely loved this book! It had a lot of twists and turns and kept me on my toes. I love the fact that he has a different style - I cannot really describe it, but the characters are very different and have very cool personalities. I just think this book was so great and I cannot believe that I was lucky enough to have read it and be sent it by the publisher. Thank you so much!

A marvellous read

This book is about a boy named Gabriel who is a skilled pickpocketer who lives with his nan and who steals food as they little money. One day Gabriel gets caught by a thief, but instead of steeling he invites Gabriel to Crookhaven, a remote school, teaching all about how to become a master of thievery by learning lock picking, forgery and "crimnastics" but they learn to steal from the rich and not the poor and to take things back to their rightful owners. This book is like Hogwarts for thieves and i love the lessons they learn and the things the characters get up to like having to pick the lock to be able to go to the loo!.

I'm looking forward to the sequel and would recommend this book for ages 9-13.
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).

As soon as I read the synopsis I knew this was a book I had to read and it didn't disappoint!
The idea of a scholl got honourable thieves is fantastic and well executed through both the characters and the tasks they are set throughout the book. The characters had real growth and the story had a great pace. I really enjoyed Crookhaven!

This was a charming book and a lot of fun, filled with the heart of a classic middle grade boarding school story.

Gabriel is a scrappy orphan who lives on the brink of homelessness with his grandma. To survive, he picks pockets, but when he picks the pocket of Caspian Crook, he is invited to Crookhaven, a boarding school for budding thieves who use their skills for good. This story is filled with a varied, diverse cast, wonderfully representative of children today, with a big focus on friendship and belonging, as Gabriel comes to find his people and discover the secrets behind his missing parents.

The messages don't always hit – the story starts by implying Gabriel has had a tough time as a Hispanic(?) kid, but pivots when he reveals he actually has an eidetic memory, as if that's some massive barrier to belonging, lmao. There's also a heavier focus on the school aspect and less on the adventure and mystery, which wasn't my personal cup of tea, but I can see there being more depth to the series as more books come out.

A fun school series with a crooked twist.

With rich world-building and an enthralling plot, Crookhaven is a fabulous new middle-grade series perfect for fans of boarding school adventures. Think Harry Potter or Skandar but in a real-world setting with talented crooks for students.

Gabriel Avery is exceptional at picking pockets - a skill he has learnt to stop himself and his beloved grandmother going hungry. But when, one day, he his caught by Caspian Crook, he is invited to join the secretive school of Crookhaven. Crookhaven is a place where thieves are taught to become exceptional in the arts of hacking, forgery, crimnastics, tricks of the trade, lock-picking and more, but ONLY to right the wrongs of the world and take back what has been robbed from the innocent.

But Gabriel is on another mission too. Desperate to uncover the identity of his parents, will Crookhaven give him the skills to find them?

It didn't take long to become fully immersed in J.J Arcanjo's brilliantly imagined world. Yes, there are definite similarities to other stories in this genre and yet it is still original enough to offer something new. With skilled writing and a premise akin to Robin Hood, it poses thought-provoking questions about morality and offers a contemporary insight into criminal activity. I particularly liked how up-to-date technology such as drones, security systems and hacking mingled with timeless pickpocketing and forgery.

The plot, set across the school year, is pacy and friendship is also a key theme of the novel. From Hermoine-esque Penelope to the Brothers Crim to the smooth Caspian Crook, the cast is well-balanced, entertaining, and representative of finding your place and identity in secondary school. I really enjoyed the point system and the break-in challenge and these added extra layers to the novel. There's a great twist at the end, establishing this series as a definite one-to-watch and I can't wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

This book is so good it's CRIMINAL. This nimble-fingered tale of Found Family is sure to steal your heart.

I was pleasantly surprised by the morality and heart in this book. The author manages to approach the subject of a school for thieves, whilst maintaining a clear line of right and wrong (the graduates of Crookhaven use their skills to do things that are unlawful but morally right eg returning stolen property, or stopping greedy corporations). When Gabriel is recruited, it means leaving his beloved grandma, but it is also his best chance at being able to provide for her the life that she deserves. At Crookhaven, he will be a “merit” recruited for his talent, but there are also “legacies” who are given places based on their parentage. There is a fierce rivalry between the two, and as a first year crookling, Gabriel must learn who to trust and build alliances. But who will win the cup this year? A merit or a legacy? There’s a good amount of mystery and adventure. I found the start a little slow but once I got into it I really enjoyed the story and thought it was a good ending. I am looking forward to the next in the series.