• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3

Willie Sutton was casing a bank when he noticed that the manager looked a lot like Sutton himself, so he walked into the vault, loaded up with banknotes, and calmly walked out. D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 in payment, and parachuted from the aircraft. He was never captured.

Other criminals in this book were no less brazen: - Arthur Barry, the greatest jewel thief in American criminal history - Vincente Perugia, who boldly stole one of the world’s greatest art treasures - Amil Dinsio, one of the most accomplished bank vault robbers in the U.S. - Victor Desmarais and Leo Martial, a hapless duo who bungled their getaway - James Landis, who stole two bricks of freshly printed banknotes from his employer—the U.S. Treasury - Adam Worth, the Napoleon of Crime - the Great Train Robbers, who planned one of the largest heists of all time - the five heisters of the Great Purolator Caper, whose ineptitude ensured capture

Be prepared for some high-stakes action in THIEVES! While many ended their careers broke and disillusioned, these impresarios of crime make for great reading.

Andreas Schroeder is the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations, journalism and literary criticism. His books have won or been shortlisted for many awards including the Governor-General’s Award, the Sealbooks First Novel Award, the Stephen Leacock Award, the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction and the Red Maple Award. For his literary journalism he was shortlisted for a National Magazine Award, and won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Best Investigative Journalism Award. He received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University College of the Fraser Valley in 2002. Schroeder currently holds the Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Nonfiction in the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program. He lives in Roberts Creek on BC’s Sunshine Coast with his wife Sharon Oddie Brown.

Andreas Schroeder's profile page

• Winner, Storytelling World Awards, Honor Title

“Realistic dialogue and step-by-step descriptions make this work suspenseful and exciting. For true, rousing adventurers ... Schroeder’s compilation can’t be beat.”

School Library Journal, 03/06