The Keepers of the Key (The Keepers Trilogy Book 1)

Museum of Thieves would make a fantastic movie. Perhaps the next Harry Potter I found myself engrossed from the very first page.

Well-paced throughout, we are kept wondering what will happen next. The end, while very satisfying, allows the reader to look forward to the next book in the series. Goldie Roth appears as a disobedient child who has worn the punishment chains many times in her home city, Jewel. When she decides to run away, she ends up in the Museum of Dunt where she meets the boy Toadspit. As they try to find their way through the museum and its secrets, we meet the Brizzlehound, Morg the slaughterbird, The Grand Protector, Guardian Hope, The Fugleman and many other rich and engaging characters with plenty of good and villainy thrown into the mix.

Illustrations by Sebastian Ciaffaglione are placed at the beginning of each chapter and give an extra dimension to the main characters. They give a sense of time and place with the costumes and would provide an interesting discussion point in classrooms — is this how you think of the characters?

Students could draw their own interpretation of the characters and the places.

This is a choice read for a competent child but would also make a fabulous read-aloud text for the classroom or family. Discussion themes such as cooperation and different language and culture are easily found throughout the book. Action-packed and exciting, it is highly recommended. Once the reader opens the book, they are taken into the city of Jewel, where the most precious and important thing in the city is the children.

They are literally attached to their parent or a Blessed Guardian by a chain with a lock and key for their protection…until Separation Day. Goldie Roth, a girl with spirit and determination, is just about to experience her Separation Day and freedom when suddenly the situation changes.

Faced with losing her freedom for a further period of time, she boldly escapes into a city mostly unknown to her. Goldie eventually finds herself in the museum and discovers that she has been lured there. She soon finds out that she has been recruited to help the Keepers of the museum with its dark and mysterious secrets in their vital mission to keep dark forces from creating chaos and destruction.

In the intricate fantasy world created by Tanner, the forces of good and evil are in contest against a background of juxtaposed values of freedom and protection, kindness and cruelty, truth and deceit, fear and courage. The story is peopled with an interesting and well-drawn array of characters, both young and older. The Museum of Thieves is a beautifully crafted novel that completely immerses the reader in a story that is compelling and also leaves the reader with much to consider after the final page has been read.

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It is suitable for upper primary and older readers who will, after reading book one of the trilogy, be eagerly waiting for book two. Margaret Warner, casual teacher, NSW. This book is the first in what will eventually be The Keepers trilogy. The story is set in the city of Jewel where all behaviour is strictly controlled. Children are chained to their parents, ostensibly to ensure their safety, but one wonders if it is more about control than safety. The Guardians are appointed to monitor behaviour and any infringement is severely punished. Goldie becomes a fugitive and breaks into an old museum looking for food and shelter.

When she steals coins she is surprised to find that instead of being punished, she is accepted into their fold, as they only welcome thieves. This book has all the hallmarks of an exciting fantasy adventure. The book ends leaving the reader eagerly awaiting the next two instalments: Will the Fugleman come up with another devious plan? I would recommend this book to 9 to 15 year olds who enjoy fantasy adventure stories.

Museum of Thieves is a unique and interesting story about a brave young girl named Goldie Roth. From the moment you set eyes on the rustic, old-fashioned cover of the book you realise that this is going to be an adventure. Where are these children? What is the significance of the dog and bird? Why are they there? Goldie lives in an authoritarian city of Jewel. In Jewel, children are the essence of life; they are the most important prized possession.

Children are required to wear guardchains for their protection, so they are safe from drowning, diseases, the plague and from slave traders. Goldie had been waiting for her day of separation and was extremely excited about the prospect of gaining her freedom. But on the day, just before the ceremony, there was an explosion. Goldie was already unchained so she took the opportunity to escape her life and found refuge in the extraordinary living Museum of Dunt, an ever-shifting world where she meets up with Toadspit, a slaughterbird, a brizzlehound and a staircase that changes.

With the assistance of the other unique characters Goldie evolves into an audacious and imaginative heroine who saves her city from destruction. Children from upper primary grades and above would enjoy this tale. I feel that they would be able to relate to it as like most young children in this generation, question the rules and regulations of society, just like Goldie. A story map could be drawn showing the journey that Goldie has through jewel and the Museum of Dunt.

Museum of Thieves is a hard-to-put-down book that never fails to surprise you. Well worth the read. This is the first book in The Keepers trilogy. The introduction before the first chapter, Separation Day, gives just enough of a hint of what is to come. Separation day is the day when Goldie Roth will at last be unchained. The children of Jewel are chained to the Blessed Guardians until they reach Separation age. This has only recently been reduced to twelve and Goldie is looking forward to her special day.

But everything does not go according to plan. The separation is cancelled after a bomb is let off in Jewel. Goldie takes the opportunity afforded by the resultant confusion and, with a little bit of light-fingered ingenuity on her part, gets herself free. This is both a fantasy and an adventure story that will appeal to both girls and boys as Goldie very quickly teams up with Toadspit. Together they try and outwit the evil Fugleman and ensure he cannot use the secrets the museum has for his own purposes.

The Museum of Dent has feelings, moods and powers that must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Fugleman. Of course, while Goldie along with Toadspit is trying to learn the secrets of the museum she is being hunted for by the Blessed Guardians. Museum of Thieves is a beautifully presented hardcover book with an old-world look but the modern feel of a fast-moving story with fun characters that will delight year olds. What would happen if parents became so over-protective of their children that it became a way of life for a whole city community?

In Jewel, impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime but being a runaway makes both Goldie and her parents criminals! She finds her way to a very strange Museum. It seems to live and breathe and it holds many secrets. This is where the title of the book is revealed. Who are the Keepers? What do they do? And what is a Museum of Thieves? The title can set the imagination off in hundreds of different tangents. It would be interesting to ask a class what they thought the museum may contain before reading the book.

Living in the museum, Goldie discovers many things about herself that she would never have thought possible, yet realises she always knew there was something more to life than being chained to her guardian or parents. Slowly she learns how to be a Keeper of the Museum and that actions have consequences.

She finds that embracing the opportunities to test her courage, help her to grow and learn; trusting her gut instincts so she can overcome problems and help her friends. I found this book captivating from start to finish and was intrigued by the character names. Definitely a high recommendation for 10 — 12 year olds or advanced junior readers. Museum of Thieves is a great read. But I wanted to write stories too.

When I was a bit older I wrote poems and plays and took them to school. Sometimes we'd perform the plays. At weekends I rode Chief through the bush around Launceston, or lay in the stable, in a hammock made out of a chaff bag, reading. When I was fifteen my family moved to Hobart and I had to leave Chief behind. We took Jock with us, but he was old by then, and when he died we got a one-eyed Labrador called Honey. I went to university in Hobart and studied Earth Sciences, but what I really liked was the stories -how the glaciers came and how you can read the leftover signs in the landscape , how a volcano is born, how rocks get twisted and torn and reshaped into mountains.

After uni I went to Papua New Guinea and taught there for three years, two of them in a bush school near some wonderful volcanoes.

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When I started at that school, there were no books, several hundred students and only three teachers. The kids lived at the school and grew most of their own food. I wrote plays for them too. When I came back to Tasmania I worked at a lot of different jobs and never really settled to any of them. I've been a teacher, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, a research assistant, a community arts worker, a freelance editor and a professional actor.

It was while I was working as an actor in a theatre-in-education company that I started writing more seriously. I wrote a short play for the company I was working for, and we performed it. Then I wrote some plays for puppetry and radio, and some children's stories. These days I live in a blue cottage very close to the beach in southern Tasmania with a small tabby cat called Miss Mouse. I still love reading, and go through lots of library books. Fantasy is one of my favourite things to read.

I still love daydreaming too, but now my daydreams mostly turn into stories. For me, writing is like reading, only better.

My office looks over my back garden which is surrounded by trees, and in summer I keep the window open so I can listen to the magpies and butcher birds, and the sound of the waves. In winter Miss Mouse snuggles up inside my jumper while I type, and keeps us both warm. Tell us more about City of Lies, the second book in the Keepers series. The Fugleman's ambition is so huge, and his loathing of his sister the Protector is so bitter, that I knew he would be back. It was just a question of how and when - and what he had been plotting in the meantime. Secondly, I wanted Goldie to keep growing.

She came so far in the first book, but there was clearly still a lot for her to learn. One of the things I wanted to do was explore the idea of chains that are not physical. This was where Goldie's feelings for her parents came in.

At the end of the first book it seemed so obvious that she was going to stay in the museum and be a keeper, and be free from all chains. But these things are never as clear as they seem, not when families and love get in the mix. These children - Pounce and Mouse - were one of the driving forces for the book, from my point of view. The other was the Festival of Lies. I loved the thought that there was a sort of magic underlying the whole peninsula - a magic that was in the earth, not the people, and that manifested itself differently in the different cities.

And the Festival was enormous fun to write about. As were Pounce and Mouse. I started outlining this book while I was still writing the first one. I needed to know if there were things I should plant in the first book that I would need later. Then, when I was working out City of Lies in more detail, I also had to outline the third book so that I knew where the whole thing was going. I often move away from these outlines as ideas come to me, but I like to start with a pretty clear notion of how the story develops.

One of the oddest things that happened during writing was the story of Toadspit's little sister. At the beginning of the second book, Bonnie has taken up archery, and her skill plays a major part in the story. I'm not sure why I added this — it was just something that seemed to fit the character. The thing is, I had named her after the daughter of a friend, and I had just finished the first draft of the book with no one except me knowing what happened in it , when I went to visit this friend.

We were talking about her kids - she's got two girls - when she said, 'Oh, by the way, Bonnie has taken up archery. So did hers when I told her what I had been writing. We haven't told Bonnie yet! From the author of the wonderful Keepers series, here is a vividly exciting new trilogy for 9 to 13 year olds, set in the same world as the Keepers, with all new characters, in a brilliant fantasy-adventure.

From the author of the bestselling Keepers series, here is a vividly exciting new fantasy-adventure for 9 to 13 year olds, set in the same world as the Keepers. The Rogues is a vividly exciting new trilogy set in the same world as the best-selling Keepers, with all new characters.

A brilliant fantasy-adventure for 9 to 13 year olds.