Grape Thief

I read Grape Thief before giving it to my pre-teen to read and I was quietly blown away, if that's possible. Since then I've shared it with other adult readers who have loved it. This book is some kind of sleeper -- I think it's a classic, but it's flying below the radar. It's a beautiful story, written well and absolutely captures a moment in american history. Beautifully crafted.

Twelve-year old Slava Petrovich is also known as Cuss, because he can swear in fourteen different languages. He is stuck in a hard position when he hits seventh grade. He is destined to become a miner like his brothers, until a problem comes to his town and his brothers are part of it. Trying to stay in school and out of work soon becomes the least of Slava's worries.This book is a great read and will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.Some of the suspenseful parts in this book contain an accidental killing, thievery on a grape train, and running from the law. If you like suspenseful historical fiction books I would definitely recommend this book to you.

Grape Thief is the story of a boy forced to grow up in a hurry. Cuss, an appealing although very human pre-teen, is one a large family of immigrants whose father's death has made their lives even more difficult than those of the other struggling people in their coal town. Still, it's a tight-knit community, and although barroom brawls and run-ins with moonshiners occasionally disrupt life, neighbors look out for each other and families pull together--as they must to survive.I disagree with the Booklist reviewer who said that the "happy ending seems patched on." Books don't have to end in gloom and doom to be realistic--good things DO sometimes happen--and this is hardly a rosy ending. The family is still torn apart, the younger brother's situation is far from optimistic (I don't want to spoil anything so won't go into detail), the mother has a hard struggle ahead of her--as does Cuss. And all the events that go toward mitigating the tough situation were carefully laid out by the author ahead of time; hardly a patch job.The details of life in this mining town ring absolutely true, as do the characters' inner lives. Highly recommended.