The Traitor and the Thief
Gareth Ward
Walker Books
Pub. 2017

October 12, 2021

The Traitor and the Thief by Gareth Ward was published by Walker Books in 2017. Ward won the Storylines Tessa Duder Award for this book. This award goes to a New Zealand author for a book for kids 13 and over.

Sin has lived on the street for most of his life, stealing jewelry and expensive items from the people around his town; that is, until he is chased down and asked to work at a secret spy agency for kids called COG (Covert Operations Group). At COG, he is made to perform and practice tasks, but he feels like something suspicious is going on. There seems to be a spy stealing data from COG. Sin makes a friend along the way called Zonda. Sin and Zonda help each other with the training that they have to do for COG. The training prepares them to go on missions.  Sin also meets a mean person named Velvet Von Darque, who tries to get Sin kicked out of COG. But the rest is for you to find out.

I really enjoyed this book. I love how the author describes everything in detail, making it easier to know exactly what is going on. I could really see everything in my mind, and couldn’t stop reading, because every chapter has something exciting and new happening. The characters are really cool and every single one of them has a different personality,  even if they aren’t the main character. That made the book more exciting too. I really liked how the author wrote this book. I like how you feel the fear of the characters when they are right in the middle of a daring mission and they are about to get caught. When you are reading these chapters, it makes you feel like you are right there with them and you are experiencing the stresses that they are going through. Not every book I read is like that.

I really like this book and I recommend it to everyone.

When I picked this book, I didn’t realise that it was written by someone I knew.  I used to live in the Hawkes Bay and Ward was the owner of the bookshop in town. Not only that, but he also did a lot of magic shows that I enjoyed watching.  He performed at many of the library events in Hastings and Havelock North that I went to. I even learned some magic tricks because I loved watching his magic shows. Ward would sometimes come to my old school and there was a recipe in the school cookbook for a strawberry milkshake that he called the Great Wardini, which is his magician name.

I was excited that Ward signed the book too.  He is a good writer and I would like to read more of his books now.

I recommend this book for people that are aged 10 to 16.

• Charlie is 12 and lives in Hamilton.