Medici Heist

Gr 8 Up–In 1517 Florence, the Medici family has a tight grip on Italian politics—including the pope. Rosa Cellini has not returned to Florence since the fall of the Republic and the death of her mother six years before, but now, she has a plan to steal 10,000 florins from Pope Leo X. Taking this much gold requires a skilled crew if they’re to have any hope of infiltrating the Medici Palace: a tinkerer, a Tunisian prize fighter, a con man, an apothecary, and even Michelangelo himself. But everyone wants to bring the Medicis down for reasons of their own, and it isn’t long before these hidden motives get in the way. The rich history unfolding in the novel doesn’t quite distract readers from the lack of chemistry between characters, who are each alone with their problems until too late in the story. By the last third, the group has found their footing and the banter begins to pick up the momentum. Readers will find the anachronistic dialogue distracting as Schneiderhan attempts to balance out the large swaths of information that needs to be delivered. Ultimately, this is a fun caper in an unusual historical period for YA, but the pacing is an issue. Most characters are Italian.