I believe that The Thief Lord meets all of the standards for outstanding children's literature. One of the most interesting themes that I picked up on while reading the book was that the children seem to be living like adults and many of the adults seem to be immature and child-like in their actions especially Barbarossa. I believe that this theme is illustrated in the scene with the merry-go-round. I believe that the merry-go-round is a symbol for the transition of the character's true personalities into either adults or children. Prosper wasn't ready to make that full transition into being an adult and I believe that this is why he chose to live with Ida instead of trying to fend for himself. I believe that if Riccio and Mosca had been there at the Isola Segreta, that they would have probably made the transition from children to adults. Overall I really enjoyed this book because it is a really interesting adventure story that I believe children can relate to and it has a lot of factual information and Italian vocabulary.