1 1

Smith: The Story of a Pickpocket (Paperback)

Smith: The Story of a Pickpocket (Paperback)

by Leon Garfield

$14.99
$14.99
Ages 8–12 Available as E-Book British & Irish Literature Children's Literature
Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when this book and other new titles are available for purchase:

Twelve-year-old Smith is a denizen of the mean streets of eighteenth-century London, living hand to mouth by virtue of wit and pluck. One day he trails an old gentleman with a bulging pocket, deftly picks it, and as footsteps ring out from the alley by which he had planned to make his escape, finds himself in a tough spot. Taking refuge in a doorway, he sees two men emerge to murder the man who was his mark. They rifle the dead man’s pockets and finding them empty, depart in a rage. Smith, terrified, flees the scene of the crime. What has he stolen that is worth the life of a man?

Smith is a gripping, engrossing, and utterly diverting tale of high adventure related by a writer whose scintillating style is matched only by the dazzle of his plotting. In the words of Lloyd Alexander, “Garfield is unmatched for sheer exciting storytelling. The reader simply can’t stop reading him.”

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Kids
ISBN: 9781681379005
Pages: 216
Publication Date:

Praise

A Carnegie Medal Honor Book

Winner of the Phoenix Award

A Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book

Leon Garfield is unmatched for sheer exciting storytelling. The reader simply can’t stop reading him.
—Lloyd Alexander

It is a fine thing that Leon Garfield’s rip-roaring and funny tales should be brought back into circulation for a new generation of readers.
—Joan Aiken

Smith is one of the most interesting children’s books of the year—not only as a period tale, though in this respect it is superb, but also for the strong yet tender comment on the way people feel, now, then, and always.
—The Christian Science Monitor

I like to think that maybe a child of today—who was like the child I was yesterday (and millions of others like me)—will remember the first reading of Smith years from now and say: Yes, that’s the book that opened windows and doors for me, the pivotal book of my childhood.
—Robert Cormier

Vivid characters, imagery, and atmosphere combine to make this a distinguished book for casual reading or for study.
—English Journal

View full details

  • Shopping for someone else but not sure what to give them? Give them the gift of choice with a New York Review Books Gift Card.

    Gift Cards 

  • A membership for yourself or as a gift for a special reader will promise a year of good reading.

    Join NYRB Classics Book Club 

  • Is there a book that you’d like to see back in print, or that you think we should consider for one of our series? Let us know!

    Tell us about it