Britneys response to "The Thief Lord"

After reading this novel i feel like i have vistited the city of Venice. I thought the author did a wonderful job describing the setting, and allowing you to really get to know the characters. It took me a few chapters to get comfortable with the book, but once i got there i really began to enjoy it. One thing that i did not like was that there were sometimes two things going on at one time. There was the Thief Lord and his gang and their story, and then there was the detective and the Hartliebs story. Then at the end she kind of pulled them both together, but at times i found myself getting some of the characters confused and i thought that if i were getting confused at some points in the story then some fifth graders might find themselves lost as well. When the author did pull all of the pieces together i felt like she did a really good job doing so. I also thought she did a good job using important symbols such as the lions wing, and the angels in the story. It makes it so much more realistic because of that. Overall i thought this was a well written novel, and i think that this would be a good way to help children learn without overloading them. My favorite character in the novel was Victor. At first he was out to "catch" Prosper and Bo, and after learning about them and their situation he helped them. I really disliked the Hartliebs because they were so heartless and if it werent for Victor i don't think that Prosper and Bo could have ended up together in the end.
The carosel was the big twist for me. I was not expecting for there to be a magical carosel that allows you to change your age. I thought this was good that the author used this because it was an integration of fantastical elements into real world setting of venice. Again the lions wing was introduced here, an important symbol in Venice.
I think that one of the themes i saw in this book is that you really get what you deserve. Barabosa thought that he could trick the Thief Lord and his gang into getting the Lions wing and then giving them fake money, but in the end it was Barabosa who got what he deserved. Also, Scipio became selfish and wanted to boss everyone around and be the leader and the other children saw this as unfair. He also learned his lesson. The children who were honest and helped one another finally found happiness in the end.