The Thief Lord

Orphans (it's always orphans, isn't it?) Prosper and Bo are on the run from their would-be adoptive aunt in Venice. They meet up with a gang of runaways and adventures ensue as the group struggles to get by, mostly by pickpocketing tourists.

I absolutely fell in love with this book at the start. The setting is perfect and the cast of characters is well defined and vivid. At about the halfway point my interest started to wane. It's interesting because that was when the true action started happening and I realized that the first half had been mainly build up to the meat of the story. The introductions were so wonderful and the simple story so enjoyable, however, that when it became more complicated I lost momentum and interest. Overall, it was still a great read and I would highly recommend it to middle schoolers.