When you look at the points made in our Temple book about qualities of outstanding children’s literature, Cornelia Funke has written an OUTSTANDING book. She teaches the kids what Venice is like when she describes the city to us. Not many kids know about Venice so when an author writes about a place like this they are expanding their imagination of the world. Another great thing that she does that I really love to see in stories is that she teaches the kids a lesson. At the same time she does not over do it! One lesson that I think she teaches is to always tell the truth. For the thief lord he had a secret and in the end his secret hurt him and his friends! I enjoyed each character that she introduced to us because she allows us to be able to relate to them. She made the characters believable to where we go out and match everyday people with each character in her novel. Now with literary elements her plot was huge. She kept the reader on his/her toes! Once you think the book might be done or that you have figured things out, she throws you a curve ball. This is what is going to keep the kids from just throwing the down or even just simply reading it and not enjoying it. Books like this one can encourage the kids that books are fun and exciting you just have to find the right one. I did mention in my first post that the book was just ok. I do believe that the book did get better but I also feel that there are even more exciting books out there. I am not exactly sure what caused me not to love this book. The only thing I can think of is that too much happened and I might have felt it dragged on, but along with that I felt she needed to include everything that she did. The book would have been incomplete if she did not write it like she has. So in other words I just cannot pin-point what I did not like about the book. Overall when looking at the criteria for a good book she has covered all her bases. She had strong characters, great imagination for the reader, and she intertwined fantasy with real-world, which is extremely difficult.