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Kira and the Immigrant Thief
In the heart of Madrid, teenager Kira McIness enters a shadowy world of thieves and pickpockets to recover a pair of stolen earrings. There she confronts a formidable adversary, an East European crime boss, and struggles with Moroccan tradition when, for mysterious reasons, the wrong person confesses to the crime.
Against a backdrop of medieval plazas, an American school and crumbling middle-eastern tenements, Kira must draw inspiration from Francisco Goya's enigmatic artwork to uncover the truth about herself, her obsession with the crime and whom she can trust before the wrong person is sent away and the facts become forever silent.
Against a backdrop of medieval plazas, an American school and crumbling middle-eastern tenements, Kira must draw inspiration from Francisco Goya's enigmatic artwork to uncover the truth about herself, her obsession with the crime and whom she can trust before the wrong person is sent away and the facts become forever silent.
141 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2014
About the author
Patricia Cleary
3 books2 followersI am a tri-lingual university professor and public school administrator who studied classical ballet and danced flamenco with Luisa Triana’s troupe in Los Angeles. I now devote my time to writing and am the author of YA novel, Kira and the Immigrant Thief, (Desert Breeze) winner of the 2015 EPIC award for best YA novel. I am a member of SCBWI and have a M.ed and a MFA in Writing for Children at Vermont College.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 20, 2016
Kira McIness is a headstrong American teen out of her element in contemporary Madrid, far from the world of California surfing she grew up in. A rebel to the core, she has been bounced from school to school in the past for bucking authority to do what she feels is right, and when her parents move them all to Europe the American Academy of Madrid is where the buck must stop--or her next school may well be a Russian Gulag...
Juggling a new social network of privileged foreign kids while toeing the line doesn't come easy, but soon she's made a friend--Margarita, the intense daughter of a Mexican diplomat--and an enemy--Suzi, a typical blonde cheerleader bitch--and begins to settle down...a bit. But just as Kira acclimatises to the art and culture of Spain, disaster strikes when a juvenile thief steals Margarita's valuable earrings right in broad daylight. Unable to control her outrage, Kira gives chase and runs headlong into a story of crime, injustice and cultural discovery--one in which she may want to play the hero, but might just be as bad as the villain...
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I find one of the additional pleasures of a good writer's group to be watching other people's projects develop. Added to that now, seeing the end result be published. I enjoyed Kira and the Immigrant Thief a lot, even though I'm not really the intended audience (I do live in Madrid, though!). It's refreshing to see a story for teens where the "fantastical" is grounded in reality, and the world of Madrid and its various inhabitants--dangerous criminals and handsome boys alike--have more than enough of the exotic about them to make up for the absence of sunlit vampires or future dystopias.
Kira is an engaging character, one who despite her good intentions makes as much trouble for herself as her real adversaries do, and the other participants in the story are well-rounded and interesting too. My only hesitation is that from time to time the style feels a bit rushed, with chapters coming to an end on cliff-hangers that, for all their potential excitement, somehow don't deliver a punch.
However, overall it's a neat little story, with interesting cultural and relationship themes and some real humour as well. Nor does it present an easy win for the hero--Kira makes choices that have serious consequences, and the ramifications are far-reaching. This is a character that could make a welcome return in future stories, and I'd pick up a copy should that ever happen.
Juggling a new social network of privileged foreign kids while toeing the line doesn't come easy, but soon she's made a friend--Margarita, the intense daughter of a Mexican diplomat--and an enemy--Suzi, a typical blonde cheerleader bitch--and begins to settle down...a bit. But just as Kira acclimatises to the art and culture of Spain, disaster strikes when a juvenile thief steals Margarita's valuable earrings right in broad daylight. Unable to control her outrage, Kira gives chase and runs headlong into a story of crime, injustice and cultural discovery--one in which she may want to play the hero, but might just be as bad as the villain...
---
I find one of the additional pleasures of a good writer's group to be watching other people's projects develop. Added to that now, seeing the end result be published. I enjoyed Kira and the Immigrant Thief a lot, even though I'm not really the intended audience (I do live in Madrid, though!). It's refreshing to see a story for teens where the "fantastical" is grounded in reality, and the world of Madrid and its various inhabitants--dangerous criminals and handsome boys alike--have more than enough of the exotic about them to make up for the absence of sunlit vampires or future dystopias.
Kira is an engaging character, one who despite her good intentions makes as much trouble for herself as her real adversaries do, and the other participants in the story are well-rounded and interesting too. My only hesitation is that from time to time the style feels a bit rushed, with chapters coming to an end on cliff-hangers that, for all their potential excitement, somehow don't deliver a punch.
However, overall it's a neat little story, with interesting cultural and relationship themes and some real humour as well. Nor does it present an easy win for the hero--Kira makes choices that have serious consequences, and the ramifications are far-reaching. This is a character that could make a welcome return in future stories, and I'd pick up a copy should that ever happen.
November 10, 2014
An American Girl Wrapped in a Spanish Mystery
Kira McInness is not going to surf any time soon. She lands in Madrid, Spain thanks to her parents’ wanderlust, is enrolled in a school she considers a dungeon, and has but one friend. Then a young pickpocket steals the earrings that the friend has entrusted to her. Kira is off and running--literally--across Madrid to right yet another wrong. Before she knows it, you and she are neck deep in a mystery involving the Morroccan community, a criminal gang, the famed painter Francisco Goya and a multinational band of friends. She must solve it, not be kicked out of school, help an immigrant family and score a boyfriend in the process. Serious subject matter but Kira has a great “voice.” I laughed a lot.
Kira McInness is not going to surf any time soon. She lands in Madrid, Spain thanks to her parents’ wanderlust, is enrolled in a school she considers a dungeon, and has but one friend. Then a young pickpocket steals the earrings that the friend has entrusted to her. Kira is off and running--literally--across Madrid to right yet another wrong. Before she knows it, you and she are neck deep in a mystery involving the Morroccan community, a criminal gang, the famed painter Francisco Goya and a multinational band of friends. She must solve it, not be kicked out of school, help an immigrant family and score a boyfriend in the process. Serious subject matter but Kira has a great “voice.” I laughed a lot.
July 19, 2015
Kira has a unique voice--all Southern California surfer girl. When she's forced to move to Madrid and attend the American school, she's not happy. She wasn't exactly a model student in So. Cal. Well, in truth, she had a few issues, most of them stemming from an overdeveloped sense of fairness. Her issues grow even stronger in her new expat environment. She finally makes a friend, and her life appears to be improving. Until she loses her friend's purse and a valuable pair of earrings. Kira provides the reader a glimpse into the exotic world of Madrid through the eyes of a teenager. You can't help but love her.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews