Imagine a Dickens story with a
Venetian setting, and you'll have a good sense of Cornelia Funke's prizewinning
novel The Thief Lord, first published in Germany in 2000. This
suspenseful tale begins in a detective's office in Venice, as the entirely
unpleasant Hartliebs request Victor Getz's services to search for two boys,
Prosper and Bo, the sons of Esther Hartlieb's recently deceased sister.
Twelve-year-old Prosper and 5-year-old Bo ran away when their aunt decided she
wanted to adopt Bo, but not his brother. Refusing to split up, they escaped to
Venice, a city their mother had always described reverently, in great detail.
Right away they hook up with a long-haired runaway named Hornet and various
other ruffians who hole up in an abandoned movie theater and worship the
elusive Thief Lord, a young boy named Scipio who steals jewels from fancy
Venetian homes so his new friends can get the warm clothes they need. Of
course, the plot thickens when the owner of the pawn shop asks if the Thief
Lord will carry out a special mission for a wealthy client: to steal a broken
wooden wing that is the key to completing an age-old, magical merry-go-round.
This winning cast of characters--especially the softhearted detective with his
two pet turtles--will win the hearts of readers young and old, and the
adventures are as labyrinthine and magical as the streets of Venice itself.
Rather than being "magical," the story comes across as somewhat contrived. What is otherwise a somewhat realistic book (though the characters are more caricatures than real people) takes a turn for the weird when the orphan children attempt to steal a piece of then find the magical age-changing merry-go-round. There is something in the writing style (perhaps the fact that it's in translation) that feel stilted. I don't think students will connect with this Venice-roaming pair of brothers and their orphan sidekicks. Though cute at points, the story is implausible. It has little that would lead me to selecting it: it doesn't have a great writing style, thought-provoking or timely themes, a local author who we might ask to come visit, other books in the series, a movie production coming up or direct connection to seminar or school activities or competitions.
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