Cornelia Funke is German; her books are originally published in that language, and are translated for the English market. Her most famous novel is undoubtedly Inkheart, which has been made into a movie, starring Brendan Frasier. The third book in that trilogy, Inkdeath, was released in English last October. Apparently she actually lives in Los Angeles. Her first book that was translated was titled Dragon Rider; it hit the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. This novel hit the #2 slot on that esteemed list and has sold one and a half million copies. It was apparently made into a film as well, but that completely escaped my notice until I hit Wikipedia today.

Bo(niface) and Prosper are a pair of young brothers, recently orphaned, who were supposed to live with an aunt and uncle in Germany, but who ran away to Venice (their mother’s favorite city). There, they were fortunately found by Scipio, a young teenager who has styled himself the Thief Lord. They live, along with a few other characters, in an abandoned movie theatre. Victor Getz is the PI that the aunt and uncle have hired to find them. However, Prosper and Bo have, with Scipio and the others, been making a living as petty thieves. They are eventually hired to find a particular item — an item that will complete a magical object of some interest and some danger on an island. Will they get caught? Or will Victor stop them first?

This book is, I feel, intended for middle-grade readers, but it’s fairly long — over 300 pages. Inkheart was the same way, although even longer. Although obviously Harry Potter has shown that younger kids will read longer books, I’m still on the fence regarding length and its correlation to age level. The important characters in the book are between five (Bo) and thirteen or fourteen (Scipio, Hornet), and there is no coming-of-age incident (well, there is, but it’s not quite standard). The main story thrust is that of finding a home, and that’s generally a storyline that’s either for younger readers or older ones — it’s also common in romance novels. In addition, the lack of graphic sexual or violent references makes me feel safe in classifying this as a middle-readers novel.

I liked the characters, especially Hornet and Ida, and the plot, which was appropriately labyrinthine. There were many events, many reveals, and a lot of points where one had to change one’s view of most of the preceding events. Victor kept an appropriate amount of suspense involved, but there was something that just rang a little thinly to me. There were very few consequences for actions, and while I don’t necessarily believe that good should be rewarded and bad should be punished, it just doesn’t seem realistic — even in a fairy tale — that people could disappear and no one would notice. I also found the magic completely unexplained. I won’t go into the details, because it would give too much away, but those who like a lot of depth to their stories should perhaps skip this one and read Inkheart instead.

Venice is awesome, and this sanitized version of living on the street — although sanitized with a good reason, not just cleaned up for audiences — has got to be appealing to kids. It’s sort of like the Harry Potter idea: if you don’t fit in with your family, someone else will sweep you up and take you away to a fantasy world. The fantasy world in Harry Potter is obviously the wizarding world, but in this book, it’s the idea that one can live and not starve on the streets of Venice. I can definitely see the appeal of the book for younger readers. The fantastic aspect isn’t very strong, so those kids who eschew fantasy might still be tempted into trying this novel. 3.5/5 stars.