Do you really enjoy reading the Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl books? If you do then the book The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funk would be a book you would really enjoy. The plots are much different but the book is just as hard to put down when you start to read it. The author is outstanding with description and clarity. If you’re a booklover or just someone looking for a book to read for SSR’s then I recommend you think about reading this one.
The book is about two young orphan brothers named Prosper and Bo. Their parents both died in a freak accident and their aunt only adopted Bo (the younger of the two) leaving Prosper without his brother in an orphanage. Bo is a 5 year old curly bright blond haired boy. His brother is his greatest role model and he’ll do anything his brother tells him to. His brother Prosper is 12 with longer dark brown hair. He snuck out at night and told Bo to run away from his aunt’s in Hamburg, Germany and go to Venice with him because their mother had told them many, many stories of how great it was there. They were homeless, but some other kids who had runaway as well found them and brought them to their shelter, an old rundown movie theater owned by their leader Scipio (Thief Lord). He steals from houses and gives them items to sell for their money. All seems like heaven until they find out their aunt has hired a detective to track them down and he soon sights them and they see him too. Now they have to be on the look as they receive an offer for what is $5,000,000 US dollars, to steal a wooden wing meant to be for a caracal for a man. That’s when the story gets a big twist that you’ll have to read the book to see what happens from there.
Here is an excerpt at the part where they receive the information regarding the wooden wing they need to steal:
"Perhaps he's not here yet. Should we have a look?" Mosca whispered cautiously.
But just then someone pulled back the curtain of the small window. Two eyes round and bright, seemingly with no pupils, gleamed through the darkness of the confessional. Prosper shuddered and only after another look did he realize that they were glasses, reflecting the sparse light.
"One also shouldn't talk about theft in a confessional," said Scipio "and that's what we're here for, isn't it?"
Prosper thought he could hear a small laugh. "So you really are the Thief Lord," the stranger said quietly. "Well, keep your mask on if you don't want to show your face, but I can still see that you're very young."
It goes on a bit from there but that’s where I will leave you, so I don’t spoil the book.
I enjoyed it a lot because it was both an adventure, and mystery book. There’s a ton of information you learn about Venice by reading this because Cornelia describes things so good you might be able to see them in your head. The characters and places will be so familiar to you by the time the books over. After you read it I also suggest that you watch the movie to get a visual on what you just read. I hope from hearing me talk about this you now want to read the book to find out what happens to Prosper, Bo, and the homeless gang.
