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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThirteen-year-old Tom Morgan was born in a brutal London workhouse. Now he shines shoes and helps a gang of street kids survive in an old warehouse by the Thames, in a London that has become a near-forgotten outpost of the French Empire. When workhouse snatchers raid the warehouse and haul his friends off to the grim Guttknot, Tom is left alone. Then a bearded stranger finds him on a rooftop with an offer. The man teaches at a secret school for thieves hidden high in the mountains, and he once knew Morris, the mentor who looked after Tom. If Tom learns to pick locks, scale walls, and plan the perfect job, he might one day free his friends. First, he must survive older students from old crime families who think a street kid does not belong.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The School for Thieves
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The School for Thieves. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a spinning Japanese top called a koma show how world empires stay balanced?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
At Eaton Square, the Corsair marks two sections of the koma as the Japanese Empire and the kingdom of Prussia, calls the rest France, and makes the Shadow League the tip it spins on. If one empire grows too strong the top falls, so the League keeps it spinning with a little nudge here and there.
- First half
In what book is a boy named after the doctor who delivered him and the infirmary guard on duty?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
Tom's mother arrived at the Rawlock hurt and pregnant and died without ever giving her name, so Dr. Thomas Beacham and the guard Gerald Morgan combined their names on the baby's birth certificate. She left almost nothing that could identify her, which is why Tom knows almost nothing about where he comes from.
- First half
In what book does a teacher disguised as a dinner-party mannequin wink at a new student?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
Master Pemberley's escape and evasion classroom looks like a stage-set banquet hall with ten mannequins in evening clothes. Everyone else spots him first, then one of the mannequins winks at Tom, and Pemberley peels off his waxy makeup to begin the lesson.
- Second half
In what book does a Tenderfoot climb a forty-foot wall using only index fingers in musket-shot holes?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
In the Yule Challenge, Tom, Neha, and Genevieve must haul heavy canvas bags up the Red Wall before the guards come around. Tom trusts only the musket-shot pockmarks, hooking his index fingers into the holes one at a time, and he swings around a tempting ledge because he is sure it is booby-trapped.
- Second half
In what book does a newspaper report that an old con man and a fence died the same night?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
Maxine is reading the Shadow League Argus when Tom spots two headlines. Marcus Silverman died in his sleep and a fire destroyed Jessica Chaffinch's warehouse on the same night, and since Tom met them both on the same day in London, he starts to wonder if the deaths are connected.
- Near the end
In what book do skiers relay a heavy case downhill along trees marked with luminous paint?
✓ Answer
The School for Thieves by Peter Burns
The case is so heavy that the Artemis team carries it down the mountain in a ski relay. Torres and Kelso mark the route through the dark forest by splashing small daubs of luminous paint on the trees.
