I would have never thought to write a book about a con artist.  But, luckily Greg Pizzoli did.  From the beginning I was intrigued by the book’s title and had a lot of questions.  Who was Tricky Vic? Where did he come from? When did he sell the Eiffel Tower? How did he do it? Did he get away with it?  What else did he do?

Pizzoli skillfully sets the stage for his story with the first line of the book, “In 1890, the man who would one day be known for forty-five different aliases was born to the Miller family …” From there Pizzoli tells us about Tricky Vic’s various cons.  My favorite was when he conned Al Capone, the mob boss of Chicago.

Pizzoli’s text is both interesting and informative.  He skillfully illustrated his book with various multi-media sources such as rubber stamps, silk screen prints, halftone photographs and pen and ink drawings. My favorite illustration is how he depicted Tricky Vic’s face.  No, I am not going to tell you. Sorry, you will have to read the book.

I highly recommend this book.  It has a lot of kid appeal and is both thought-provoking and entertaining.

Happy Reading!!!!

Note:  Greg Pizzoli lives in Philadelphia and his first picture book The Watermelon Seed received the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award.  Visit his web site at www.gregpizzoli.com