It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that's happened to him since he came to France with his father, an American diplomat. So instead of reporting the thieves, Charlie defends one of their cannons, Amir, to the police, under one condition- he teach Charlie the tricks of the trade. What starts off as a lesson on pinches, kicks, and chumps soon turns into an invitation for Charlie to join the secret world of the whiz mob, an international band of child thieves who trained at the mysterious School of Seven Bells. The whiz mob are independent and incredibly skilled and make their own way in the world-they are everything Charlie yearns to be. But what at first seemed like a (relatively) harmless new pastime draws him into a dangerous adventure with global stakes greater than he could have ever imagined.

Author Biography

Colin Meloy (Author) Colin Meloy once wrote Ray Bradbury a letter, informing him that he 'considered himself an author too.' He was ten. Since then, Colin has gone on to be the singer and songwriter for the band the Decemberists, where he channels all of his weird ideas into weird songs. The Wildwood Chronicles (Wildwood, Under Wildwood and Wildwood Imperium) represent his first time channelling those ideas into novels. Carson Ellis (Author) Carson Ellis first rose to prominence as the artist who created husband Colin Meloy's band's (The Decemberists) iconic visual look - one that would become immediately identifiable and a key ingredient of the band's success. She's gone on to become a bestselling illustrator, collaborating with many accomplished authors including Lemony Snicket on The Composer is Dead. The first novel that she illustrated, The Mysterious Benedict Society, has sold more than 500,000 copies and spent several months on the New York Times bestseller list. Wildwood and Under Wildwood are the first two books of three in The Wildwood Chronicles written by Meloy and illustrated by Ellis. The third is Wildwood Imperium.