The Thief Lord is a middle-grade fantasy novel originally written and published in German by Cornelia Funke in 2000. Its English translation by Oliver Latsch was reprinted in 2002. The story won many national and international awards, including the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for Outstanding Translated Book, the Zurich Children’s Book Award, the Swiss Youth Literature Award, and the Book Award from the Vienna House of Literature. It’s also a New York Times Notable Book, an ALA Notable Book, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Funke is an award-winning children’s author. Her most famous works are the Dragon Rider series and the Inkheart series. Her first novel translated from her native German into English was The Thief Lord.

Plot Summary

Max and Esther Hartlieb travel to Venice and hire the private detective Victor Getz to find their runaway nephews, Prosper and Bo. After the boys’ mother died, the Hartliebs decided to keep Bo and send Prosper to boarding school, so the boys ran away to Venice—a place depicted in their mother’s magical stories. Victor agrees to find the boys.

Meanwhile, Prosper and Bo have joined the Thief Lord Scipio’s gang, which also consists of Hornet, Riccio, and Mosca. The group lives in an abandoned movie theater named the Stella, and Scipio brings them stolen provisions. The night the Hartliebs hire Victor, Scipio brings a bag of loot he claims was reported stolen in the newspapers. Prosper and Riccio sell the loot to antique dealer Ernesto Barbarossa, negotiating a good price. Barbarossa offers a client’s job to the Thief Lord. Riccio is excited, but Prosper doesn’t trust Barbarossa. On their way back from Barbarossa’s, Prosper runs into Victor, who chases him. Riccio and Prosper get away, but Prosper realizes his aunt knows he and his brother are in Venice.

Scipio agrees to take Barbarossa’s job, so Riccio arranges for a meeting with the client at St. Mark’s Basilica. When the gang walks through St. Mark’s Square, Victor spots Prosper and Bo. Scipio takes Mosca and Prosper to meet the client, the Conte, and leaves Hornet, Riccio, and Bo outside. After a brief conversation, the Conte leaves instructions and a carrier pigeon for the gang. Meanwhile, Victor talks to Bo and learns the children live in a movie theater. Leaving the Basilica, Prosper recognizes Victor and tells Scipio who he is. Hornet pretends Victor is kidnapping her, so the police stop Victor, allowing the kids escape. Back at the Stella, Scipio opens the envelope and discovers the Conte wants him to steal a wooden wing from a lady named Ida Spavento. He tells Mosca and Riccio to stake her house out.

Victor investigates abandoned movie theaters, which leads him to the house of Dottor Massimo, the Stella’s owner. Inside, he discovers Scipio: He is Dottor Massimo’s son and has been lying to the other children about his identity as an orphan. Scipio evades Victor and sets a trap at the Stella. When Victor arrives, the children tie him up and lock him in the men’s bathroom. Prosper asks Victor about his aunt, and Victor promises to try to keep the boys together. The next day, Scipio doesn’t show up to meet Hornet, Riccio, and Prosper at Ida’s house. They feed Victor’s tortoise at his office and discover that Esther wants to arrange a meeting with Victor about Prosper and Bo’s whereabouts.

Victor tells the children Scipio is lying about his identity and gives them Scipio’s address. Prosper and Bo ring the bell and enter while Riccio, Mosca, and Hornet wait outside. Prosper feels betrayed and tells the others the truth; they plan to steal the wing without Scipio. Victor escapes from the movie theater while the children are gone but leaves a note promising not to tell anyone about the brothers’ whereabouts. Victor instead lies to the Hartliebs, saying that the boys left Venice. Esther doesn’t believe him and has reward posters made.

While Prosper is sleeping, the other kids sneak out to Ida’s house. Prosper wakes and joins the burglary to protect Bo, who has tagged along. They find Scipio inside. Ida, the woman they’re intending to rob, wakes and tells the children the story of a magical merry-go-round that turns adults into children and vice versa. Her wing belongs on the carousel. She agrees to let them have the wing if she can follow the Conte when he goes to the merry-go-round.

Hornet and Bo stay at the Stella while Riccio, Mosca, Prosper, and Scipio give the wing to the Conte. After the exchange, they follow the Conte in Ida’s boat to the Isola Segreta, where the noble Valaressos used to live. Someone fires shots from the island, so the group retreats. Scipio goes home while the others go to the Stella, where they find a note from Hornet instructing them to go to the emergency meeting place. Prosper, Riccio, and Mosca don’t find Hornet and Bo at the meeting place, so they go to Victor’s house. Victor assures them he didn’t go to the police, and a message from Esther tells them her reward posters led her to Bo. Despairing, Prosper wanders the streets alone.

After discovering Hornet was taken to an orphanage, Victor takes Riccio and Mosca to stay at Ida’s house. Ida and Victor retrieve Hornet, while Riccio finds Prosper outside the Hartliebs’ hotel and takes him to Ida’s. When everyone is sleeping, Prosper sneaks out to Ida’s boat and meets Scipio. They take Scipio’s father’s boat to the Isola Segreta: They’ve discovered that the Conte paid them with counterfeit bills and want a settlement, but Scipio also wants to ride the merry-go-round. At the island, the boys find the Conte and his sister transformed into children; they were servants of the Valaressos who felt their childhood was stolen, which was why the Conte wanted the wing to fix the merry-go-round. Scipio demands to ride the merry-go-round but Prosper decides not to. Scipio becomes an adult. Barbarossa appears and rides the merry-go-round until he breaks it. The Conte forces Barbarossa, now a child, to give him all the money in his shop as payment.

Scipio takes Barbarossa and Prosper to Ida’s house, where Prosper reunites with Bo, whom Esther decided she didn’t want after he misbehaved and ran away. Victor found Bo and brought him to Ida’s. Hornet, Prosper, and Bo decide to live with Ida while Riccio and Mosca get a place of their own. Scipio becomes a detective and works for Victor. Victor and Ida trick Esther into adopting Barbarossa. He steals from her, so she puts him in boarding school, where he orders the other children around and calls himself the Thief Lord.