Funke, C. (2000). The
Thief Lord. New York: Scholastic.
This week
I read The Thief Lord by Cornelia
Funke. It is an international book that
was originally written in German, but was translated to English by Oliver
Latsch. I really enjoyed reading this
book, and I think it would be appropriate for middle school-age children.
The Thief Lord takes place in Venice,
Italy, in present day. It is a story
about a group of homeless children, Riccio, Mosca, Hornet, Prosper, and Bo, who
live in an old movie theater and who live off the stolen goods of Scipio, who calls
himself the Thief Lord. Scipio is about
14 years old and says he is orphaned, but it turns out he is from one of the
wealthiest families in Venice. Prosper
and Bo are the two newest children added to the group when they ran away from
their Aunt Esther after their mother died.
Esther wants to adopt 5-year-old Bo, because he is sweet and
angelic-looking, but doesn’t want to adopt 12-year-old Prosper, so they ran
away to Venice. Esther and her husband hire a private detective, Victor, to
find the children. Victor discovers the
gang in the movie theater and becomes their ally. The Thief Lord is hired by the mysterious
Conte to steal a wooden wing. The whole
gang goes to Ida Spavento’s home to steal the wing. She catches them and ends up becoming their
ally, too.
This
novel is realistic fiction, but more specifically, it is a mystery. Mysteries are my favorite, so I really liked
this one. There are lots of different
mysteries in this book –the missing children, who Scipio really is, stealing
the wooden wing, who the Conte really is, etc.
When reading this book I felt like I was right there in the middle of
the chase with the characters.
The
setting of Venice, Italy, is integral to the story. The Conte lives on a mysterious, cursed
island in the lagoon surrounding Venice.
The characters travel everywhere by foot or by boat. While reading this, I made two text-to-text
connections that helped me visualize the setting of Venice. One is the movie The Italian Job, where in one scene they were stealing something
from a home in Venice and they got away on boats through the canals. I kept picturing that as I read about Scipio
and his thieving. Another connection is
to the novel Betsy and the Great World,
where the main character, Betsy, travels to Europe for a year in the 1910s, and
one of the places she lives is Venice.
These two sources helped me picture where The Thief Lord takes place.
One thing
that makes this book an international book is the use of foreign words
throughout the story. Italian words are
used to describe the people – Signor, Signora, Conte, Dottor (Mr., Ms., Count,
Doctor) and as greetings. A lot of the
words you can figure out the meaning from context clues. There is also a helpful glossary included in
the back of the book for the words you can’t figure out from the text.
The Thief Lord is organized into
chapters, some longer than others, that each have chapter titles. These titles give a little clue into what
will happen in the chapter. There is
also foreshadowing throughout the book that give clues to what will happen
later in the story. Each chapter tells
the story from a different person’s point of view, mainly Prosper, Victor, or
Hornet. The point of view is third
person omniscient, since an outside narrator is telling the story, but the
reader can see the thoughts of whoever is telling the story.
There is
also a bit of fantasy toward the end of the novel. The wooden wing is part of a merry-go-round
that is rumored to turn children into adults and adults into children. You will have to read the novel to see if
this turns out to be true or not, and if anyone takes a ride on the
merry-go-round.
BIG
QUESTIONS: If you could choose one, would you rather be a child or an
adult? How would your life be different
as each one (child or adult)? Prosper
and Bo ran away to Venice because their mother told them all about the city and
that it was magical – if you were running away, where would you go and why?
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