Appropriate for age 9 and up. Prospero and Bo have run away from their Aunt and Uncle Hartlieb. Prospero is twelve and Bo is five. Aunt Hartlieb wants to adopt Bo after their mother's death, but not Prospero. They run away to Venice, the city that their mother adored and spoke of in great detail and vividness. Prospero and Bo are adopted into a small gang of children who live in an abandoned movie theater. The leader of this gang is Scipio, the Thief Lord. Clever and mysterious Scipio claims to be able to steal anything from the wealthiest houses all over town. He supports this bragging with real valuables, which the children take to a pawn broker to get the money that they need to buy food and other items. But life is not all fun and games. Prospero knows that their Aunt will not give up easily on finding them. And he's correct. She has come to Venice, knowing all the stories the children's mother told them, and she hired a private detective, Victor Getz. Now not only do Prospero and Bo need to avoid the disguise-loving, and gentle Getz, but someone has hired the Thief Lord to steal a precious object. This promises to be the most difficult job ever taken by the Thief Lord and his gang, and may tear them apart in unexpected ways.
The setting of Venice with its mazelike streets, many canals and waterways, statuary and churches is beautifully painted in words in this novel. The descriptions are vivid and yet not overdone or heavy for a children's book. The characters are gems, characters that one sympathizes with or loathes. Getz and his pet turtles are endearing, as well as his reluctance to turn the boys over to the overbearing aunt. Scipio is also a well-developed character who has complex motivations. School Library Journal said, "Funke delineates her characters and the changing textures of their relationships with masterful subtlety, as well as sometimes-puckish humor. It's a compelling tale, rich in ingenious twists, with a setting and cast that will linger in readers' memories."
This book was very enjoyable to me. The characters were lively, and although there were quite a few, it didn't feel like there were too many to keep track of who was who. The descriptions of the city were exquisite and made me want to visit Venice as soon as I could. Just as the mother's stories to Prospero and Bo about Venice decided where they would run if they had to get away, Funke's story made me want to run away to Venice myself. The magic carousel, while a lovely idea, seemed a bit of an intrusion to a story that seemed so real up until that point. But it was a forgivable flaw in the book as a whole, especially considering the effects upon the characters and the way it changed their lives.

Appropriate for ages three to seven . This beautifully illustrated going-to-bed tale is a marvel of imagination and comfort. Mother Bear calls her children in for hibernation because the days are growing darker and colder. “'Bedtime already?' cried the bears as they tumbled inside. ‘Oh yes,' said Mother Bear. ‘But there's plenty of time for your own special rhyme, if you climb into bed and snuggle in tight, without any fuss and without any fight.'” Then each of her six little bears are given a rhyme tailored to their personality as she decides who is the sleepiest by who is yawning. A pirate, a trapeze artist, a jungle adventurer, a queen and a sultan soon are snoozing away in their beds. The rhymes are simple, but the style and rhyming pattern changes for each bear. There were a couple times when the rhyming pattern was a little off and had to be slightly forced by the reader to fit. “Ali Bear, Ali Bear, tummy all tight” The emphasis on the right place in the name makes the line work, but the wrong emphasis is easy to do and then the line limps. But the majority of the rhythm and rhyme is skilled and easy on the reader and the child.
The illustrations support the text beautifully. Done in gouache, watercolor and colored pencil, the illustrations are rich, textured with saturated colors. The bears' expressions as they yawn or tug on the stuffed elephant are evocative, and all the yawning going on in the story will inspire a few real yawns in your listeners and the readers too! The quilt on the bed is delightfully detailed, looking like a real homemade quilt from many different kinds of material. A nice element in the illustrations is the use of hats. After each bear has their rhyme recited for them by Mother Bear, each little bear is wearing a hat appropriate to the poem for the rest of the book as they sleep.
Although the author, Mem Fox, is Australian, there are no obvious cultural markers to set this book aside as belonging only to the Australian culture. Nothing in the word choice or in the illustration confines it to a location. This story could take anywhere in the world that gets cold in winter and has bears.
I enjoyed the way that the author extended the word “fast” into “faaaaaaaast” in order to clue the reader that they should lengthen the word. I also find it very skilled in making the reader and audience yawn so many times as you read it. My four year old and six year old requested that I read it four times in the space of two days. They joined in on the yawning and the “faaaaaaaaaaast asleep” as predictable text. They also enjoyed looking at the illustrations, and asked questions.
Overall, this book was an excellent read for the intended audience and was effective in communicating the desired theme.