Title : Herr Der Diebe

The Thief Lord (English)

Pangeran Pencuri (Indonesian)

Author : Cornelia Funke

Publisher : PT Gramedia Pustakan Utama

Pages : 417

Children are caterpillars and adults are butterflies. No butterfly ever remembers what it felt
like being a caterpillar.
Cornelia Funke, The Thief Lord

The Thief Lord is a children's novel written by Cornelia Funke. It was published in
Germany in 2000 and translated into English by Oliver Latsch in 2002. It was also adapted
into a film in 2006. As of now it has been translated in to 35 different languages including
Bahasa Indonesia.

The book follows the story of two brothers, Prosper and Boniface (Bo) whose mother
recently passed way and was taken in by their aunt, Aunt Esther, and her husband. Afraid that
his aunt would send him away to a boarding school, Prosper persuaded Bo to run away with
him to Venice, the city that their mother often told them stories about. After all Aunt Esther
had always hated him and only liked Bo because he had the face of an angel.

After a long way of squatting in rattling trains, hiding from conductors and nosy old
ladies finally they arrived in Venice. There they met Hornet, the girl with hair resembling a
hornet's stinger, Mosca, a boy with skin so dark he could creep through the shadows, Riccio,
a scrawny little boy with brown hair that sticks out everywhere, and their mysterious leader
Scipio, the thief lord who has a dark secret. They were a group of street children who enjoy
making mischief across Venice. All of them were also orphans and they became instant
friends. With the help from Scipio they joined Hornet and her friends to live inside an
abandoned theatre, STELLA.

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 Aunt Esther who was so keen on catching the boys pursued them to Venice and hired a
private investigator, Victor Getz, on their trail.

Living with the group was really an adventure for Prop and Bo. They worked together
with Scipio to steal jewelries, gems, and other precious items from palaces, homes for rich
families in Venice. After successfully robbed one place, the gang would then arrange a deal
with the sly gift shop slash black market shopkeeper, Ernesto Barbarossa, for the stolen
items.

A customer of Barbarossa, Conte, accidentally found out about the gang and requested
the children to steal a wooden lions wing for him from a woman named Ida Spavento. Little
did they know that what they would soon discover would change the course of their destiny.

The author, Cornelia Funke, did a great job on writing this novel. She has this talent on
making people keep reading the book, its like magic. For example, first we met Scipio who
was very mysterious. Nobody knew his background and nobody dared to ask. But little by
little the author gave us hints and clues that we just had to keep on reading to find out.

Another thing that I love about this book is because it is full of surprises. In the beginning
I thought the book is about children going on an adventure Enid Blyton style but then after
reading three fourth of the book we found out that the story is more than that. After all it took
place in Venice, you just cannot not expect something magical will happen there you know.

The characters of this novel are very fun to read. I like how Prosper was getting jealous at
Scipio because it seemed like Bo liked Scipio more than him. Also how Prosper is very
protective at Bo, it was really sweet of him. Another character that I also really like is Hornet.
Because she was the only girl in the gang, she kind of act liked the mother. Counting money,
budgeting, nagged around and stuffs like that.

I would definitely not mind to read this novel all over again and would surely recommend
it for other people to read, not only children and young adults, but I think this book will also
teach something valuable for adults. It has great characters that are very fun to read, some
mysteries and surprises that will surely make you wanting more.

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