Patricia Cleary is a professor of bilingual education who lives in downtown Madrid, Spain. A graduate of Vermont College's Program in Writing for Children, Patricia has authored several bilingual books and has written Spanish language curricula for high school students. Of Kira and the Immigrant Thief, she says, "My best childhood friend jumped into life wholeheartedly. This included both the Southern California surf and protests against the despoiling of the sea. She acted with her heart first and dealt with the consequences later. I wondered, if she were dropped into a cosmopolitan city like Madrid, having to tackle a multitude of cultures and languages, what would happen to her?

Kira and the Immigrant Thief

Patricia Cleary's debut young adult novel. In the heart of Madrid, teenager Kira McIness enters a shadowy world of thieves and pickpockets to recover a pair of stolen earrings. There she confronts a formidable adversary, an East European crime boss, and struggles with Moroccan tradition when, for mysterious reasons, the wrong person confesses to the crime.

Winner of the EPIC eBook Award for best eBook of 2015 in the young reader category.