Characterization

Katarina - Katarina Bishop is a high ranked thief, raised from birth to perform heists in the highest security places. She is reserved, but not shy and will speak her mind when she has something to say. She is a natural leader, but works well with others. There is no physical description of Kat in the book, but as I was reading, I imagined her as being very casual. She is wearing a t-shirt and jeans to show her relaxed attitude, but when she is conning, she is all business.

Gabrielle - Gabrielle is a very feminine character. She is very interested in fashion and designs all the costumes for the team's heists. She is wearing a pink dress to show her feminine side and her taste in fashion. Gabrielle is very knowledgeable throughout the heists because she has a lot of experience in high-risk heists.


Hale - Hale is a very controlled character. He is not overbearing or bossy, but has a lot of information to share. He is not part of Kat's family, but comes from a family who is also involved in high-risk heists and is very close friends with the Bishop family. Hale is wearing a denim jacket and sweatpants to show that he is relaxed. However, while conning, Hale is anything but relaxed!


Uncle Eddie - Uncle Eddie is the head of the family. His house is a command central for the Bishop family's meetings. Usually, Uncle Eddie has the final say in what happens and who will go on the heists. Uncle Eddie is wearing a t-shirt and jeans because it he mostly stays home and is a leader for the family.

Symbolism

Crown Jewels - For her seventh birthday, Uncle Eddie took Kat to Austria to steal the crown jewels. When she was three, her parents took her to the Louvre....to case it.

U-Haul - This U-Haul represents how much the Bishop family moved. When they stayed in one spot too long, they were recognized wherever they went. If you are a family of thieves, you need t be as unnoticed as possible. There was one exception to this rule in the Bishop family. Uncle Eddie was allowed to have an address because many family members came to him to talk and for advice. He was not as involved in casing and heists as he was when he was younger. Uncle Eddie's house was a "command central" for the bishop family's heists and cons.

Themes

Trust - Kat and her team have to trust each other throughout the heist that everyone will follow the plan.


Independence - in the beginning of the book, Kat tries to separate herself from the thieves of her family, so that she can become more independent and be "normal". However she learns that she cannot remain independent and is drawn back into the family.

Family - Family plays a huge role throughout the novel. Kat has an extended family, all involved in the con business, and must continue to perform heists, as her family would expect. Her family has a reputation for being wealthy and smart so Kat must also carry this on. Throughout the book there are examples of how Uncle Eddie was the head if the family and what he says, goes. No one argues with Uncle Eddie. There is somewhat of a3 hierarchy in the Bishop family, but the work together great as a team.

Friendly Letter to the Author

3900 S. College Road

Wilmington, NC 28412

January 18, 2012

Dear Ally Carter,

         

         I have just finished reading Heist Society in my English and Literature class for school and am starting a project on the book. In the project I am exploring themes and symbolism in the book. Also, I really enjoyed reading the book and I could not put it down! I visited your website and enjoyed reading your biography and exploring your website. I have read other books that you have written in the Gallagher Girl series also.

         

        I have a few questions to ask you about being an author. How long does it take to get a book published and what is the process that you have to go through to get a book published? I know it must take a long time and take a lot of determination to persevere through the process. I am glad there are authors like you who want to write books for us!


        Another question I have is what makes you want to write book after book. Do you get involved in the story so much that you want to develop the characters and continue their fictional life? Is it easier to write many books in a series or start fresh for each book? For me it would probably be easier to write in a series because I would want to elaborate further on the characters. I know as a reader, when I read one book in a series, if the book is a cliffhanger and is suspenseful down to the very end, I will look forward to reading the next book immediately, but if I lose interest, I won't read the rest. How did you make sure that your readers wanted to continue reading the Gallagher Girls series? As soon as I read the first one I was hooked and couldn't put the rest down until I finished them!


        I was also wondering how you decide how the book will end. Do you decide how the whole story is going to happen before you write it, or do you write what comes to your mind? For example, when Kat and her team are stealing the five paintings from the Henley, did you have it planned all along that one of the paintings would be missing or did that idea come to you as you were writing? 

           

         I am an avid reader and will continue to read your books in the future!

                                                                         Sincerely,

                                                                           Caroline Marapese

Plot Summary

Katarina Bishop has grown up in a family full of thieves and has been expected to continue the tradition. At fifteen years old, she conned her way into boarding school and then was kicked out after being blamed for a crime involving a display of the headmaster's car on a fountain. However, it was Kat's cousin, Gabrielle, who did this because of influence by Arturo Taccone, the man who falsely blames Kat's dad for stealing his five precious paintings. A trip to Paris gives Kat the opportunity to lie to the police enough to get her father temporarily in prison to keep him safely out of Taccone's reach. Kat's Uncle Eddie refuses to let Kat become involved with Arturo Taccone, saying that he is too dangerous, but with the help of a few of her friends, she manages to learn that the paintings are hidden inside the Henley and are not legally Arturo Taccone's, but were stolen by the Nazi's. Kat and her team devise a plan to get the paintings back to Arturo Taccone before he kills Kat's father. In this high-risk heist, Kat proves to be one of the best thieves in history.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Three words that describe Kat, the protagonist, are devious resourceful and intelligent. Katarina Bishop is a very intelligent girl. She creates a devious plan to prove her father's innocence and retrieve paintings from the most highly secured museum in the world. Kat and her friends think up solutions to every possible scenario to avoid getting caught. Going into the heist they were extremely prepared with knowledge.


The antagonist is Arturo Taccone. The antagonist is Arturo Taccone. This man is so certain that Kat's father stole his paintings that he will do anything to prove it. He tells Kat to prove that her father does not have the paintings by retrieving them from whoever owns them. Taccone is the "bad guy" throughout the novel causing many conflicts and this is how I know that he is the antagonist.  

About the Author: Ally Carter

Ally Carter was born and raised in Oklahoma. Her mother was a teacher and her father a farmer and rancher. She has one older sister. In high school, she was very active in a number of student organizations and graduated as co-valedictorian of her senior class. She then attended Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and worked for several years in the agricultural industry before writing full-time. Her first novel, Cheating at Solitaire was published in 2005. Then, she followed that up with her first novel for young adults, I’d Tell You I Love You but Then I’d Have to Kill You in April 2006. In the fall of that year she published the sequel to Solitaire, Learning to Play Gin. Her books have been published in more than twenty countries and have appeared on best-seller lists from the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, and Bookscan. She now lives in Oklahoma and works as a full-time writer. You can visit Ally Carter at allycarter.com Other books Ally Carter has written are Only the Good Spy Young, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You, Uncommon Criminals, Learning to Play Gin, and Cheating at Solitaire. I think Ally Carter wrote this book because she has an interest in spying and mystery. I have read a few of her books and they all relate to spying and or mysteries. She said on her website that she was listening to a book on tape in the car and it was describing a situation where a boy had to steal food from the kitchen without waking his parents up. The line was, “I was a cat burglar in my own house…”. Right then she said that she knew she wanted to write a book about a girl named Kat who was a burglar. She had just finished writing another book in the Gallagher Girls series and was looking for a new, fresh, book to write. Also on Ally Carter's website, she said that part of her inspiration for this book was her love of con movies. She had always been fascinated by the bad guys who were actually the good guys and wanted to incorporate them into her novel about Kat.