Graphic Novel Review: Lily the Thief by Janne Kukkonen.

Posted on April 14, 2020 at 10:48 am by Gene Ambaum

Lily the Thief by Janne Kukkonen. English translation by Lola Rogers. First Second, 2019. 9781250196972.

Lily, an ambitious young thief, is tired of getting easy jobs. She wants the thieves’ guildmaster to assign her real burglaries, and she’s annoyed that the other, more experienced thieves don’t think much of her. After she overhears the guildmaster telling her mentor that she’ll never get any of the tough jobs, she helps herself to one of the guild scrolls (and the job it contains). Her mission: to steal a bit of treasure from a coffin in the Earl’s castle. The problem: it’s heavily guarded, The Brotherhood of Fire wants it, and what’s she’s done has angered her guildmaster as well. The job doesn’t go well, and Lily is soon doing even more dangerous work to try to save herself and her mentor.

This is a fairly lighthearted, beautifully drawn graphic novel with a bit of magic, spookiness, and violence. I’d have read it to my kid when she was in grade school, and I think young readers are really going to love it.