Title: The Thief Lord
Author: Cornelia Funke
This book is basically: “Peter Pan meets Six of Crows (a younger version) meets The Boxcar Children” in modern-day Venice with a slight twist of fantasy near the end, in this gripping adventure tale of two brothers and their unexpected friends… especially a mysterious boy named Scipio. Who is awesome. I adored how Prosper looked after Bo — it made me happy. (Also, pet tortoises! Poor Victor. XD)
Most of the book was 4 stars…
Solid 4 stars throughout, might have made it to 5 stars if it had ended how I wanted…
As it is, it’s being kept from a disappointed-2-stars currently by remembering that I liked it most of the time and by pretending there’s a missing chapter afterward. 😛
The ending was more like 2 stars…
(If you would like to read a brief description of the alternate ending chapter which doesn’t exist, I include it in spoiler tags in my review on Goodreads. That’s what happens in the chapter that doesn’t exist, after the end, which I maintain should/could happen. *coughcough* …It all COULD still happen! I insist. Ahem. *folds arms stubbornly*)
Basically other than a couple discontentments about the ending, it was a great read. I just… am evidently enormously picky about my endings. >.> *cough* Obviously a flaw of mine… Somewhat disappointed, but I can pretend a missing chapter continuing the ending, so. XD
I started to put the back cover copy here… and realized that it basically entirely misrepresents the book. XD So I’m making up a version of my own…
Orphan Prosper and his little brother Bo connect with a group of street children and try to evade the well-meaning but unfortunate detective Victor, who has been hired by Prosper’s nasty aunt and uncle to find them. It’s a game of cat and mouse — and no one knows how to play that so well as the Thief Lord, a mysterious boy who has taken the brothers and their friends under his wing. But troubles await them, with secrets lurking which could tear the tight-knit group apart. All Prosper wanted was to protect Bo… He didn’t intend to get entangled in these mysterious goings on. Nothing is as it seems, and they are about to discover that a little magic may still lurk in modern-day Venice…
Illustrator: Illustrated by the author.
Genre/Category: Contemporary / Fantasy
Age Group: Young Adult (some scary situations involving children, and mild language)
Published: 2002
Pages: 345 paperback
Series?: No.
When Read: January 16-17, 2016
Favorite Character: Scipio, of course! He was so awesome…
Other Notes: Translated into English by Oliver Latsch. Given to me by a friend.
{Goodreads} • {Amazon} • {Barnes & Noble} • {Libraries}
Thanks for reading!
Dream away in those pages…
~ The Page Dreamer
The Page Dreamer (Deborah O'Carroll) 
I so hate when perfectly good stories are ruined by horrid endings! It’s like why even bother writing the entire story if you’re going to throw it away by the end? Meh. But, with that said, this does sound like an interesting read. We actually have this one at the bookstore I work at and I’ve considered getting it, but I can’t decide. Honestly, I didn’t even really like Inkheart (in fact, I shamefully didn’t even FINISH Inkheart) so I’m not sure I want to bother with any of her other books. But maybe I should give her another chance. *shrugs*
Anyways! You made an alternate ending to this book? That’s so great! Now I want to read it just so I can see what you made!
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I know, right? o.o You might enjoy this one, though! 🙂 It just depends… I was just really attached to one of the characters and something about how things ended up for him made me a bit sad… but it wasn’t ALL bad or anything… I dunno. *shrug* Ohhh, I always kinda wondered about you and Inkheart! o.o Like basically everyone else I know loves them, so… it’s kinda weird. O_O I’m going to try reading them myself, but I can understand not wanting to finish, I guess… though my book-twin not finishing it makes me worried. XD
And it was more of a single-paragraph-vaguely-listing-a-few-things-that-should-have-happened-differently, not like a whole alternate ending or anything. XD
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I’ve been thinking about reading this! But…ugh, I *hate* bad endings…
But still, it’s worth a try, right? I mean, it’s not a series, so I won’t be as *emotionally invested*… XD
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It’s not a bad ending, per se… it’s more like I wanted things to turn out a little differently for one of the characters. 🙂 You might very well think it a very good ending, I don’t know. ^_^ (And yes, that’s true about series. XD) I liked most of it, so you might enjoy it! 🙂
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I’ll definitely give a try! 🙂
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