Double Entry Diary about The Thief Lord

From the Book:
"Scipio!" Dottor Massimo's face turned purple with anger. "Can't you see I have a visitor? How often do I have to tell you to knock? What if the gentlemen from Rome had been here already? How would it look if my son barged into our meeting because of a sick cat?"
Victor turned around and looked into a pair of frightened black eyes. "She's really not well," Dottor Massimo's son murmured. He quickly lowered his head, but Victor had already recognized him. His hair was tied back in a tight little ponytail and his eyes didn't look quite as arrogant as before, but there could be no doubt: This was the boy who had so innocently asked Victor the time, just before he and his friends had tricked him.

p. 114 par. 1-2

What this means to me:
Why is Scipio stealing when his father is rich? Does Scipio want to give back to the poor like Robinhood?

How is Scipio so kind to the other kids when his father treats him so brusquely?

This quote shows a completely different side to Scipio than we have seen before. It's amazing that he is so scared of his father when he seems fearless as "The Thief Lord." This part is seemingly the beginning of the unraveling of the mysteries behind Scipio's behavior for the real orphans and thieves that Scipio has been taking care of.


From the book:
Prosper looked across the water nervously. He and Bo had never been out here, although the others had told them a lot about the lagoon and its islands. Little specks of land hemmed with reeds. Here were the ruins of long-abandoned villages and fortresses, and the fruit and vegetable fields that supplied the city. Some were home to the monasteries and hospitals where the city's sick used to be brought.

p. 208 par. 1

What this means to me
This passage provides a great image of what the outskirts of Venice must be like. This could launch a lesson about geography, about the history of Venice, about a million different things.

With this passage, the novel seems almost like historical fiction. The Venetians had to get their food from somewhere and this is a good explanation to something that I hadn't thought about before reading this paragraph. Where do you get food when your whole city is on a lagoon?