Grape Thief

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and authentic
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Grape thief
Review: 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.