The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry

• Genre:  Adventure
• Grade Level: 4th - 6th 
• Reading Level: 5.6 (11 points)
• Length: 336 pages
• Publisher:  Aladdin (March 29, 2016)
• My Rating: 3 out of 4
• Readability: Fun, fast and easy read. 
• Divsion 1 or Crossover
• Summary:  Twelve-year-old AJ is dreading spending the summer with her uber-strict grandmother--that is, until she's recruited to join Grandma Jo's madcap band of thieves.

AJ is spending a month of her summer with her grandmother who is very strict and doesn't seem to be proud of how AJ would rather play soccer than do girly things. She wants AJ to be a proper young lady. However, through some snooping, AJ discovers that her grandmother's bridge club is just a cover for a crooked operation where they plan heists to steal items and each one takes turns picking out the target. They in turn need AJ as she is able to move about quickly and get into places that have become difficult for the one who usually has this role. (She had to have hip surgery and is using a walker.)

Of course, even though it is exciting at first, AJ starts to wonder if what her grandmother is doing is really morally right. She realizes she needs to make a stand for doing the right thing and not what her grandmother wants.   

Even though this book was fun to read, I was a bit uncomfortable with the the morality of the grandmother and the resolution of the story. It did not feel like there was true transformation of the grandmother's crooked ways.  It is also a very girl driven character and may not appeal to the boys.