The Lighthouse Thief

"The Lighthouse Thief" by Bo Burnette is a mystery about a young boy who lives on St. Simon's Island and his cousin from Chicago who comes to stay with him for a week. The two boys discover a plot to potentially harm the lighthouse, decide they must do something to stop it.

For me, this book had the best imagery that I've read since I read "The Book Thief" about 10 months ago. I could clearly see every scene described in my mind. The characters and setting were charming, yet the plot was kind of predictable and the clues easy to solve, but then again that's coming from a reader of many mysteries and ciphers, so it may just be that I've had practice. The clues were very clever though, and poetic (bonus!). "The Lighthouse Thief" was like a combo of imagery from the likes of "The Book Thief", sweet characters like in "Heidi", and of course mystery like that of "The Boxcar Children", so I really enjoyed it because those are pretty much all my favorite books. Amazon says this book is set for 3-8 graders, but because of the extensive vocabulary of the author, I would recommend grades 5-9.

The book will leave you connected to the characters and their relationships, and make you wish you could stay in St. Simon's Island forever too. Well done!