Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Peter Nimble is found, as an infant, floating in a basket with his eyes pecked out.  He grows up on the streets of a fishing village, and learns to be an excellent thief as a way to survive.  His life takes a dramatic turn when he meets a man selling hats, and steals from him a box will three sets of imitation eyes.  The eyes are magical, and they lead him on a quest to save a vanished kingdom from a ruthless tyrant.

Sound strange?  Yes it is.  This is a very fanciful fantasy full of larger than life characters.  The writing has a wry kind of humor that invites the reader to join into the joke. I liked Peter and his friends, but I was bothered, again, by the level of violence.  So many people/characters get killed.  At least in this book, none of the main characters are ruthless killers, and the degree of detail describing the deaths is much lower than in the previous book, but there is still a disturbingly large body count by the end.  Maybe it doesn't bother other people. Maybe I am just getting old. (381 p)