Artful

DODGER by Terry Pratchett. Harper, 2012.

Winner of a Printz Honor Medal, Dodger takes readers into a sort of familiar past. Meet Charles Dickens, Disraeli, Queen Victoria, and Dodger. Dodger has been living by his wits (and some finagling and some petty theft perhaps, too). Now, though, he is becoming respectable because he rescued a damsel in distress (he also manages to defeat Sweeney Todd, but that is another part of our story). Pratchett, master storyteller that he is, has penned a novel that is history and fantasy seamlessly and artfully combined, a mash-up if you will of the actual and the imagined. I would hope that high school teachers might consider this as an alternative text or a companion text to some of the novels set during this same time period. More importantly, I hope that many teachers read this and enjoy the references, the sly humor, and the twists and turns of plot. Huzzah for DODGER!