The Thief Lord

The Thief Lord was written by Cornelia Funke and illustrated by Christian Birmingham. It was published by The Chicken House in May of 2010 in English. This chapter book is a fantasy novel translated from German. It was awarded the Mildred Batchhelder Award in 2003. The theme of this book is a bit muddled, but it seems like family is very important. The main characters of this story are Prosper and Bo, who are brothers. They escape from their aunt and uncle, after their mother's death, and run to Venice. There they meet up with a band of orphaned children living in an abandoned theater named the Stella. These children are led by an older boy named Scipio, who calls himself the Thief Lord. They boys get into perilous adventures with these orphans. Their aunt and uncle hire a detective named Victor to find them. Victor attempts to get them back but is tied up and captured. He escapes, but he promises not to reveal where they are to their aunt and uncle. The orphans find out about a magical wing, that once affixed to a magical merry go round can make them older or younger. The merry go round gets broken leaving an evil man a young child and Scipio an adult. This book is fascinating if a bit too broken, but it is a very culturally rich story that would be great for teaching about literature from another country.