The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (new read)
What a lovely book!
Brothers Prosper and Bo run away to Venice after their parents die. They meet a group of street children, who quickly take them in to their home at an abandoned movie theater. Their leader is a boy named Scipio, also known as “The Thief Lord.” He steals items and gives them to the other children to sell to a sketchy shopkeeper named Barbarossa.
In the meantime, Prosper and Bo’s aunt and uncle have hired a detective named Victor to find their nephews. However, they only want Bo, which was the reason the boys ran away in the first place.
I wish I could tell you more about it, but I don’t want to spoil anything. This story is wonderful. It’s full of twists and turns! The Venetian setting gives it a different kind of feel than the typical American novel… almost magical. There are many subplots, but they never take away from the main narrative. What an adventure!
VERDICT: I highly recommend this book. It’s full of mystery and suspense, and I think would appeal to a wide cross-section of readers!
yabookchallenge 