The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

The Thief Lord is a book about a group of orphans in Venice that steal for a living. They live in an abandoned movie theater, and their leader is a boy named Scipio, or known as the Thief Lord. The group members are Mosca, Riccio, Hornet, and the two new orphans that are running from away from their aunt, Prosper and Bo. One day, the Thief Lord stole a few items and tells the group members to sell them to Barbarossa. When Prosper and Riccio go to haggle, Barbarossa approaches them with a deal from the Conte (which is basically kind of like a count). Scipio, or the Thief Lord, accepts this. The deal is to steal a wooden wing from a lady named Ida Spavento. They were to be given five million lire. The members eventually learn that this wing belongs to a lion from a mystic merry-go-round that make adults become children and children becomes adults. Without all the original pieces, the merry-go-round would simply not work. Ida agrees to give them the wing unless she could go with the children, so they agree. Meanwhile, a detective named Victor Getz is going around, trying to find the brothers from a request from the aunt of Bo and Prosper. However, after he learn's their part of the story, he lies to the aunt and uncle saying that their whereabouts are unknown because they escaped on a ship. Also, they find out that Scipio is actually a rich kid that steals the items from his parents. Later, they trade item with the Conte and his sister. However, they find out that they were given fake money from the Conte, so later, Scipio and Prosper go to approach the Conte. They find out that the merry-go-round actually works, so Scipio goes on the merry-go-round to become an adult. Unfortunately, Barbarossa appears on the scene. He is found out to be a traitor to the orphans. Scipio tricks him into riding the merry-go-round and soon Barbarossa is a child. However, while riding the merry-go-round, he broke the wing of the lion, so the merry-go-round is no longer able to use. After that, Scipio comes up with an idea to get rid of the now young Barbarossa by making Aunt Esther (the aunt of Prosper and Bo) adopt him.

The end of the book, Mosca gets hired by a fisherman in the lagoon. Propser, Hornet (whose real name is Caterina), and Bo lives with Ida Spavento. Riccio is still pick-pocketing unfortunately. Though, Scipio is being trained by Victor (Who is a detective. That's why he was sent to find Prosper and Bo). Barbarossa is sent off to a boarding school because he was found stuffing Aunt Esther's jewelry in his pockets. At his school, he is rude and completely terrible. He calls himself the Thief Lord. This story was astounding. I love Cornelia Funke. She takes one simple idea, and mixes it with fantasy and it is just so beautiful!