This young adult “tween” novel (9-12), will delight anyone at any age. Set in Venice, it is the story of a group of ragtag homeless and runaway children who fend for themselves by hiding out and surviving on the streets and canals. Translated from German, the story has beautiful illustrations done by the author which adorn each new chapter. There is mystery, suspense, and a magical outcome which is not at all predictable. Everytime I thought I knew what was going to happen, there would be a fresh and unexpected little twist.
Read this story yourself, buy it for a tween, or better yet, read it out loud to a tween you know and love. You will both be captured by the story and the setting. And then visit Venice. 🙂 Note: the Italian names won’t roll off your tongue if you don’t know how to pronounce them. Courtesy of wikipedia, here are the trickiest ones: Scipio (Sip-ee-oh) and Riccio (Ree-chee-oh).
Cornelia Funke’s website is an adventure in itself. Be sure to visit there and have fun clicking on the various parts of the opening screen. Make the chair move, the globe turn, and the mouse squeak. Watch letters fly into the mailbox, and is there really something hiding in the garbage can?
Cornelia Funke’s Website
Joanne's Reading Blog 
I borrowed the book from our local library and gave it to our 9 year old grandson Joseph to read. He devoured it in two days, loved it. He plans to borrow other Cornelia Funke books from his own local library to read over the summer. Thanks again Joanne.
That’s great Joan! He might also really enjoy John Grisham’s YA series Theodore Boone. Look back at the blog post I did on the first in the series. And now the second one called The Abduction is out as well. In fact I just checked it out of the library myself, it looks good!