THE PEACH THIEF, by Linda Joan Smith, Candlewick, March 4, 2025, Hardcover, $19.99 (ages 8-12)
A workhouse orphan pretends to be a boy in order to get a job at a Lancashire estate in The Peach Thief, by Linda Joan Smith.
The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something more: a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches.
She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and she’s cultivating hope with every seed she plants.
But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last? Beautifully crafted with classic middle-grade themes of fate and ambition, identity and personal responsibility, this stunning debut features brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into what makes a garden thrive—and a heart and mind flourish. —Synopsis provided by Candlewick
The Peach Thief reads like a warm classic. Author Linda Joan Smith has a comforting tone to her writing that invites you in and asks you to stay a while.
The story revolves around Scilla, a girl who’s just trying to survive, and when a punishment turns into a job, she gratefully takes it. It’s such a joy to see Scilla fascination with nature and how things grow. She’s just lovely.
Smith beautifully sets the scene. She drops you straight into 1850s Lancashire, England. Her descriptions of the gardens and everything connected to them make you feel like you’re walking the grounds beside Scilla.
The Peach Thief is an excellent middle-grade read.
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