Joaquin Camp, The Robbery, Berbay Publishing, May 2024, 40 pp., RRP $26,99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922610737
Thief 1, Thief 2 and Thief 3 have a very simple plan: dig a tunnel and rob a bank. They attend an excavation course run by the best teacher but only one of them really benefits. On the way through their tunnelling, they discover that Thief 3 is an excellent violinist. Their karate black belt skills are needed at one point. But finally, they decide they’ve had enough digging because they can’t find the bank though they did discover some interesting destinations. Thief 3 suggests the treasure is in their hearts not in a building. That’s a bit corny (and the other two thieves agreed) but it adds to the overall humour of the story.
The quirky visual text is an excellent complement to the verbal text. The Thieves, dressed identically, are portrayed with minimal facial features but there’s no doubt about their emotions. Each page turn brings the reader to a different perspective, and there’s good use of ‘white space’ on the page. The book is sure to encourage lots of discussion about the wrongs of bank robbery, about friendship, about innate skills and about the important things of life.
Joaquin Camp is an Argentinian author/illustrator who now lives in Madrid.
I enjoyed the humour and the visual techniques, and the concept behind the story, but feel that the book hasn’t been rounded off well: it stops too abruptly.
Reviewed by Maureen Mann
