Against the expectation created by the title and cover, till around page 176, this book appeared to be a rather boring tale about orphan children living rough in a condemned cinema in Venice, two of them on the run from their aunt who wants only the five year old, and plans to pack the twelve year old off to a boarding school. The children live off the proceeds of objects stolen by the mysterious Thief Lord, a twelve or thirteen year old boy who does not live at the cinema and comes and goes intermittently. Before long, their precarious existence starts to unravel when they accept a commission to steal a wooden wing on behalf of a mysterious Conte (count). 
 Without giving away the fantasy element which finally starts to turn this into something like the adventure story I was expecting, I found this unsatisfactory on a number of levels. There is a wish fulfilment aspect which undermines the initial idea of children who are living rough and relying on stealing. By the end, all plights are resolved in a fairy tale manner - the children who want a secure home are granted one by a woman who, we have been told, is a famous photographer and travels a lot, but seems to throw it all over to take in a number of children and their kittens. The kids who want to remain independent are able to go off to another squat and carry on as before. The one who solved his home problems magically (the Thief Lord) has no difficulties caused by the fact that he now has no paperwork to prove who he is (view spoiler)[because he is now much older (hide spoiler)], and is given a job by the private detective who helped them, despite the fact that he can't possibly obtain a legal permit. 
 Another aspect that irritated me is the role of girls and women. One of the kids in the cinema is a girl but despite the scene early on when she manages to thwart the detective when he is tracking the two runaways on behalf of the aunt, she spends most of the time worrying about other characters, and volunteers to look after the five year old when he would otherwise be a liability when the others go to do the robbery for the Conte. The photographer, as I've said, seems to chuck her career without there being any question even raised, and even the aunt who decides to dump both boys in an orphanage when the younger one plays up, is so gooey eyed about having a kid that she is persuaded into adopting a boy she has hardly met (view spoiler)[in actuality, the crooked antiques dealer who cheats everyone throughout and has been rejuvenated, in the process breaking the magic roundabout that the wooden wing completed (hide spoiler)]. The Conte's sister does capture two of the boys with the help of fierce dogs, but even she is mainly identified as his sister with no real characterisation. So for an early 2000s novel it comes across as a much older book from the female roles. 
 I'm guessing that if this book had been around when I was the target age group, I would've been too bored to finish it.