THE THIEF LORD is the story of two boys who run away from an unloving aunt and flee to the city of Venice. Prosper and Bo's mother told them tales of Venice when she was alive, but now that she is dead, things have changed. The boys' aunt wants to keep Bo and send Prosper away to boarding school. Desperate to stay together, Prosper leads Bo into an exciting life on the run on the streets of Venice. The boys meet up with a girl named Hornet, who takes them to stay with a rag-tag group of street children protected by Scipio, The Thief Lord. When Aunt Esther hires a detective to find the missing boys, their new life is turned upside-down.

Funke describes the streets of Venice in a romantic way, but also allows the reader to see the city through the eyes of a child. "Four horses - massive golden horses - stood frozen there, stomping and neighing." Funke's language puts an image into the mind's eye that is almost mystic in its grandeur.

The title may be The Thief Lord, but the heroes of the story are the two boys. Funke resists the urge to make them complete innocents in their victim roles. However, the boys must make tough decisions in their new lives, and do not always do the moral thing. For example, Prosper and Bo must learn to steal and lie sometimes even if it is not something that they believe in. Prosper is especially torn because of the fact that he wants his little brother to know right from wrong. Although Bo is definitely the cute one in the story, Funke allows him to be bratty and sometimes annoying like little brothers tend to be.

In the intermediate library, the book is never on the shelf. The word of mouth between children for The Thief Lord is amazing. This is a book that a child will recommend to a friend. As one fifth grader out it, "I really like all of the twists and turns!"