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Book Review By Ann Gaines
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

When Prosper and Boniface are orphaned, their evil aunt Esther takes both boys in but decides she wants to adopt only Bo, who's five. She plans to send the older Prosper off to boarding school. Unable to stand the thought of being separated, Prosper and Bo run away to their late mother's favorite city, Venice, where they become part of a small group of street children who live in an abandoned movie theater and help out the boy whose name is Scipio but prefers to be called The Thief Lord. Every few nights, the Thief Lord will suddenly and mysteriously appear with stolen goods which he says he's stolen from Venice's richest house. His underlings, who include a girl nicknamed Hornet and ragamuffins Riccio and Mosca, sell the goods to a crooked, greedy, selfish shopkeeper named Barbarossa.

Realizing that the boys were raised on their mother's stories of the magical Venice, Esther Hartlieb suspects they're hiding out there. In Venice, she hires a private detective named Victor to search for the boys. At the same time, Barbarossa approaches the gang with a proposition - a mysterious Count desires the Thief Lord to steal something for him. Barbarossa assumes the Count is after a precious jewel or some such, but when the children and the Count meet, he reveals to them that what he's actually after is a piece that long ago broke off from a magical merry-go-round, which has the power to make its riders either younger or older, depending on which way they ride. He points them to the house where the wooden wing is kept.

The Thief Lord has begun to plot how to break into this house, when the detective, by a stroke of great fortune, finds out where Prosper and Bo are hiding. He will also find out the Thief Lord's true identity.   


Plot & Themes
Tone of book - humorous or laughable
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy story on current Earth
Coming of age Yes
Youngster becomes - a thief
Is this an adult or child's book? - Kid's book (ages 7-14)
Descript. of chases or violence - 30 %
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20 %

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - a kid

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Earth setting: - current (early 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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