Good YA fantasy. Listened to it on audio CD. ( )

one of the best books that ive read during my childhood. this book really caught my attention and i finished it sooooooo fast cuz it was so interesting. ( )

En la maravillosa Venecia, Próspero y Bonifacio encuentran cobijo en una banda liderada por un cabecilla apodado Señor de los Ladrones. Un enigmático encargo los lleva a una isla de la laguna que alberga un misterio que lo cambia todo…

I read this book after my 9-year-old little friend that sometimes sits and reads with me and brings all her books for me to look over got this from her school library. I love hearing her tell me all about what she's read when she finishes. This time she wasn't her usual enthusiastic self about sharing this story so I asked her if I could read it. I found the book problematic on several levels. One...it's a book marketed for 10–12-year-old children and it seemed that the entire theme of the book is based on the boy known as The Thief Lord and his habits of stealing and how enthralled with him the two boys were that was with him. The second thing that bothered me was that none of the adults in the book seemed to want to confront him on it or question him in any way. The boys thought he was some kind of hero because he did whatever he wanted and also was capable of magic that was seldom used for anything good. The story is very slow to get started, and the promised fantasy element doesn't appear until the last 75 pages. There's little emotional involvement, and the rest of the story just meanders. There are adults in the book but none of them ring true or behave like any adult you've ever met would when met with two young runaways and a kid that is a thief even if he does know magic. The amorality of the children, and the author, was a concern. I asked my little friend what she liked about the story if anything, and she, in honest 9-year-old fashion, admitted she was quiet taken with the adults letting the children do whatever they wanted with complete freedom and no punishment. Noone dared to bother them, and they weren't told to clean their room or to go to school. That also worried me slightly until she admitted that she didn't think the way they behaved was right and they should have been in trouble and been sent to their room. ( )

Huyendo de su tía, que intenta separarlos, Próspero y Bonifacio llegan hasta la maravillosa Venecia. Allí encuentran cobijo en una pandilla juvenil liderada por un misterioso cabecilla apodado Señor de los Ladrones. La unidad de la banda parece romperse cuando un enigmático encargo lleva a los niños a una isla de la laguna que alberga un misterio que lo cambia todo... Un relato que mezcla elementos de David Copperfield y Peter Pan, un protagonista que se asemeja a un moderno Robin Hood, una novela sorprendente, que atrapará a todos los lectores.