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This shimmering middle-grade debut set in 1850s Lancashire, England, explores longing, belonging, and the courage it takes to find your placeand bloom. The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermores garden wall, she wants only to steal a peachthe best thing shes ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when shes caught by the earls head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something more: a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, shell have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her Brownie, and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and shes cultivating hope with every seed she plants. But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last? Beautifully crafted with classic middle-grade themes of fate and ambition, identity and personal responsibility, this stunning debut features brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into what makes a garden thriveand a heart and mind flourish.
The Peach Thief | 
