The book that my partner and me picked is called “Thief Lord”. It is written by Cornelia Junke. At first I did not want to read this book, which has happened a lot so I guess I should stop judging books by there covers. The reason why I didn’t want to read it I guess was because the description inside did not really sound like my type of book. I love books about either mystery and suspense or biographies. Sometimes romance is good too. But this book didn’t really sound like any of those genres. The inside of the flap of the book gave me a description set in Venice, Italy where two young boys, Prosper and Bo lose there parents in a tragic car crash. The younger boy Bo is sent to live with their cruel aunt and uncle. Prosper, the older brother, wants to get his little brother back so he can take care of him. So he takes Bo and they run away to Venice, which they’ve heard great things about from the stories their parents have told them. They meet a group of kids just like them, except these kids are wealthy street kids. They have a leader, who they call the “Thief Lord” who steals valuable things from famous places and rich families. Then he sells these valuable things for money and supports him and his friends. Prosper and Bo are welcomed in to the group, but the evil aunt has sent a detective in Venice to track down both brothers and bring them back to her. Trying to escape the detective and the other kids trouble, the group runs into all kinds of adventures.
I really didn’t want to read this book at first. The beginning of the book was really slow, not really giving much away and sort of confusing. But once the Prosper runs away with his little brother, the story does pick up the pace. I started to really pay attention to the book and the authors writing, and realized how much good detail and descriptions there is involved. Once I got more into the book and read farther into it, I began to enjoy it much much more. Cornelia Funke is a really good writer and gives great descriptions of the city of Venice, portraying it as a magical city with lots of mysteries and secrets, but also very beautiful. She also describes some of the huge mansions, palaces, museums, and churches that the thief lord is able to break into, in great detail and not leaving anything important out. After a bit of reading you can start to feel as if you’re a character in this book, exploring and along with these kids in there many adventures.
My favorite parts of this book so far are when the author describes some of Venice’s many beauties and famous monuments such as fountains with elaborate decorations or the giant statues of lions or important people. Other very good parts of the story are when the people of Venice are described, with their distinct personality traits and their language. You can really get a feel of how different they live in Italy, and also how sweet and naturally nice people are there. I’m not really sure whether its all true about Venice or not, never being there myself, But it makes for a great story. Another good thing is the pace of the main events in this story. They’re perfectly spaced out and it makes the story move along evenly, which a lot of books I’ve read were missing. The dialogue between the main characters is also very clear, you always know whose speaking, and the author also includes a good sense of humor between characters, making you want to read further.
Overall, it’s a good book once you’re able to get into it. And yes, I would recommend it!
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