What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

read 2012-2017, not too old (maybe max 30ish years), I think the cover had some gold on it, maybe a bridge and a castle in the background and a the MC with some other people

plot: Started with a pickpocket MC in some city, I think they stole a wallet from some person watching a street show and brought it back to a group of orphans. While bringing it back, I think I remember something about taking apples as well. Something happens here where a person comes to find the MC because they need a good pickpocket for a journey. This person (I'll call them the mentor from now on) takes the MC to a waterfall and tells them they need to trust them and jump into the water below, they both do and go to a house. I can't remember if this is just the MC at this point, or if the whole group of pickpockets came with them. The mentor says they need to save the world somehow, I think it involves overthrowing a king or something, and they go on a journey. The mentor has magic marbles, or maybe beads, that they keep some sort of box and you have to crush them to get some sort of power, it might be protection. On the journey, they have to cross a big canyon at some point, and I think they drop some of the marbles. They get to a town with a castle, the castle is very large and has mechanisms that involve moving water around and gears in the walls. I don't remember really what the goal was, but the MC and the group of pickpockets goes into the castle and there's a big plan that involves using a tunnel system and the gears in the walls. Someone gets caught by the guards in the tunnels. I think the MC has to go into the walls, maybe fight up in a tall tower. It ends with a lot of fighting and flooding in the streets.

Is it The Ship Beyond Time ?

Maybe The Thief, though not all the details match.

It's not either of those, thank you though! The MC was pretty young I think, probably 10-14 range.

Ok no idea if this will help at all but I think I remember the kid that gets caught in the tunnels actually stays behind in order to distract the guards. I also feel like the flood at the end had blood in it? That makes me doubt the age range where I read this book, which previously I said 9-14 but that makes me think I was probably on the higher end of that

Flooded tunnels MAY have gotten this book onto this list (but a small chance):

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

(To everyone: please add any other books that you think should be on this list, and others! Lists are greatly enriched through participation, and help people to find books they have forgotten (thus reducing the load on this group!), and also act as suggestions for people who may be interested in the particular theme or aspect discussed)

Bumping this! Also I'm now very sure that the water was a big part of the mission, I think there are locks that control flooding/keep water back from the castle, and they're connected to some clock mechanism. The protagonist has to maybe trigger them to go earlier than usual?

Bumping! Don't have any new info, I may be combining two books but I do definitely know the flooding castle mechanism and the pickpockets are the same book.

Sydney, did you read it in English? Which country?

Any love interest in the story? Guessing it was a medieval-esque sort of world?

The Magic Thief, or is this too young an audience?

(There's a Thieves list, if you feel like a browse...: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8... )

I read it in English in the US. I don't think there was a love interest, and I do think it was an older world! The Magic Thief isn't it, I think it may have been for an older audience. It was a pretty long book, I looked on the list but nothing seems right at the first glance thanks though

The first part of your description sounds a lot like this one. I don't remember anything about beads or water, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. LOL

Take a Thief

bumping this another time! the water was definitely a big part of it, for some reason i'm thinking maybe instead of beads it was an eye? like a glass eye that someone needed and they could put it in to do different things

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke?

Could it be Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Peter Auxier? The main character is a pickpocket / thief and there is a box of magic glass eyes - not sure if the rest matches.

EDIT: I couldn't find a Google Books preview, but there is a copy of Peter Nimble on archive.org - https://archive.org/details/peternimb.... After searching for keywords e.g. 'apple', 'waterfall' and 'clockwork', it does look like this could be your book.

That is it!! Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, the description matches exactly what I remember. Wow thank you, I guess the eye part was very important!!

Great! Glad you found your book, Sydney.

Peter Nimble series by Jonathan Auxier - Becca's find.