Magic

Cornelia Funke is the 3rd bestselling author in Germany behind J.K. Rowling and R.L. Stine (this is what her bio in the back of the book actually says) (maybe she should change her name to C.?. Funke). This book takes place in Venice and it's pretty good. ( )

A YA read aimed at (perhaps?) a middle grade audience. The plot ran along the lines of a band of homeless kids in Venice, with a mysterious leader not really much older than they were (except for Bo, the youngest, a brother of Prosper, the other MC).

Without revealing the plot twists, there developed an untenable situation for the kids remaining in their hideout. How this developed was an engaging adventure, with amusing character developments. Inevitably, they ran into difficulties beyond their ability to cope. Two supporting characters ('Victor' and the countess 'Ida') manage to intervene in crucial, if unrealistic ways.

As an adult reading the story, I found the adventure which Scipio and Prosper had, on an offshore Venetian island, out of context with the lead up in the story, not to mention the fantasy developments afterwards. The story especially became convoluted with the 'child' Barbarino and his eventual adoption. The story wrapped up unsatisfactorily: felt rushed in the final chapter(s), without enough detail around the children who remained at Ida's. The Middle Grade crowd may be bored or perhaps enthralled with the book: it's a hard one to unreservedly recommend. ( )

Against the expectation created by the title and cover, till around page 176, this book appeared to be a rather boring tale about orphan children living rough in a condemned cinema in Venice, two of them on the run from their aunt who wants only the five year old, and plans to pack the twelve year old off to a boarding school. The children live off the proceeds of objects stolen by the mysterious Thief Lord, a twelve or thirteen year old boy who does not live at the cinema and comes and goes intermittently. Before long, their precarious existence starts to unravel when they accept a commission to steal a wooden wing on behalf of a mysterious Conte (count).

Without giving away the fantasy element which finally starts to turn this into something like the adventure story I was expecting, I found this unsatisfactory on a number of levels. There is a wish fulfilment aspect which undermines the initial idea of children who are living rough and relying on stealing. By the end, all plights are resolved in a fairy tale manner - the children who want a secure home are granted one by a woman who, we have been told, is a famous photographer and travels a lot, but seems to throw it all over to take in a number of children and their kittens. The kids who want to remain independent are able to go off to another squat and carry on as before. The one who solved his home problems magically (the Thief Lord) has no difficulties caused by the fact that he now has no paperwork to prove who he is because he is now much older, and is given a job by the private detective who helped them, despite the fact that he can't possibly obtain a legal permit.

Another aspect that irritated me is the role of girls and women. One of the kids in the cinema is a girl but despite the scene early on when she manages to thwart the detective when he is tracking the two runaways on behalf of the aunt, she spends most of the time worrying about other characters, and volunteers to look after the five year old when he would otherwise be a liability when the others go to do the robbery for the Conte. The photographer, as I've said, seems to chuck her career without there being any question even raised, and even the aunt who decides to dump both boys in an orphanage when the younger one plays up, is so gooey eyed about having a kid that she is persuaded into adopting a boy she has hardly met in actuality, the crooked antiques dealer who cheats everyone throughout and has been rejuvenated, in the process breaking the magic roundabout that the wooden wing completed. The Conte's sister does capture two of the boys with the help of fierce dogs, but even she is mainly identified as his sister with no real characterisation. So for an early 2000s novel it comes across as a much older book from the female roles.

I'm guessing that if this book had been around when I was the target age group, I would've been too bored to finish it. ( )

Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious character who calls himself the "Thief Lord." Brilliant and charismatic, the Thief Lord leads a ring of street children who dabble in petty crimes. Prosper and Bo relish being part of this colorful new family. But the Thief Lord has secrets of his own. And soon the boys are thrust into circumstances that will lead them, and readers, to a fantastic, spellbinding conclusion.