The Thief Lord

The Thief Lord- by Cornelia Funke

I never actually thought I would enjoy 'The Thief Lord' as much as I did. It was such an amazing book and it was not childish, though it was about children. And the end wasn't like every other happily ever after either.

Prosper and Bo are orphans. They had been living with their aunt and uncle but had run away. Prosper, the older one, had to look after his brother, Boniface, who is just about 5 or 6 years old.

The two end up in Venice, which was their mother's favorite place. There they find a bunch of orphans who take them in. These orphans are pickpockets, as they do not actually have any money or food to live with.

There, Prosper and Bo meet Hornet, Riccio, Mosca and the Thief Lord-Scipio. All the kids (except Scipio) live in an abandoned movie theatre, The Stella. Every few days, Scipio takes their loot to a sly shopkeeper called Ernesto Barbossa.

All the orphans always wonder where Scipio goes and lives in the night but they do not ask him. In a way, they're afraid of him, as he walks with a cape and mask, and acts as if he is an adult. He allows only Bo to call him Scip.

One fine day, when Prosper goes with Riccio to sell their loot, Ernesto tells them that one of his clients would like to speak with Scipio. Prosper is highly suspicious but Riccio tells Scipio. Thus they meet with the Count, and he tells them to steal a wooden wing from Ida Spavento's house.

At the same time, Prosper's aunt and uncle have met with a detective called Victor Getz and have asked him to find the missing children. Though they do not like Prosper, they think that they can save Bo from Prosper's so-called bad influence.

One day, as Victor is having coffee in a plaza, he sees Bo and manages to have a conversation with innocent little Bo. He finds out only that the kids live in an abandoned theatre before Hornet causes a distraction and they manage to slip away, stealing Victor's wallet as well.

As Victor sets out to find which abandoned theatre they live in, he comes across Dottore Massimo, owner of The Stella. There, Victor sees Scipio and finds out that Scipio is Massimo's son.

After the other's find out, they leave Scipio, angry with him for lying to them (they thought that he had really stolen everything when he had actually taken the stuff from his own house), and attempt to do the robbery of the wooden wing by themselves. On the same night they find that Scipio has decided to do it as well. Thus all the kids are found out by Miss Ida Spavento.

When Ida finds out what they were trying to do, she tells them the importance of the wing. It seemed that the wing was part of a merry-go-round which had the magic ability to turn someone younger or older.  The merry-go-round had been in her orphanage but after a few years someone had stolen it and ha not been seen ever seen.

Here's the link to Cornelia Funke's official website: www.corneliafunke.com