Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

by Jonathan Auxier

Genre: Fantasy
Age group: 10+

Today, there aren't many blind thieves. But there was a time when there were. Peter Nimble was the best of them all—an orphan, trained to be a thief by his cruel master who forced him to steal jewelry for him, who one day met a haberdasher and stole a box from him. He, naturally, opens the box, and finds inside three pairs of eggs that when cracked reveal—three pairs of eyes. But they aren't normal eyes. There is a pair of gold, a pair of onyx, and a pair of emerald. When he tries the gold pair, he is suddenly transported to another place in another time and finds himself floating in the ocean, next to a ship. He is lifted aboard, and meets Sir Tode, a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate mix between cat and horse. He also meets the haberdasher, who explains to him the eyes and tells him their purpose: to help Peter as he embarks on a trip to discover his one and only destiny.
This book was pretty good. The writing sounds oldish—no, that's a bad way to put it. It sounds not modern, it sounds like it was written by, for example, Merlin. YES, that's what it is. It sounds like it was written by Merlin or some other famous wizard from way-back-when. That's not a bad thing. It's the right style of writing for this book; I think any other way would ruin certain parts of it. It makes the book more whimsical. I also liked how there are so many new obstacles popping up all the time—it adds a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, the fact that so many obstacles are popping up all the time can be a bit overwhelming and feels almost naive, and at times I felt as if this book was written by my 5th grader friend. However, it's a really interesting story, and is carried off pretty well. Maybe it's not as well-written as some of the other books of this genre, but it's certainly a great and entertaining read.