Inkheart

This is still an AMAZING book. I read it before, when I was much younger, and am happy to note that it's still a magical read. There's just something about the idea of turning reading into magic that gets to the very heart of me as someone who loves reading. Now, as an adult reader, I can quibble a little about the relative shallowness of the villains here and such, though there was obviously a great deal to cover including a whole host of characters, but, really, there seems to be little point. The book is a magical read, and I actually really look forward to reading the whole series this time around (I somehow never got the chance before).

Let's compare.

I'd been wanting to read this novel since seeing the movie in-theater years ago. Inkheart in print didn't hold up to my expectations. I don't remember the movie well, but for all these years, I remembered getting distracted every time the girl mysteriously called her father "Mo", and I felt that the middle dragged a bit. Well, this book dragged a bunch, and Funke gave no reason for why her main character refers to her father even in private by his nickname.

Meanwhile, the enthralling Elinor from the movie was almost unbearable in the book. I'm not sure why she was given so much attention. Was she in the form of an old woman supposed to represent childish ignorance? Mo was as flat as a page. The evil Capricorn was built up in dialogue more than action, which, I suppose, makes sense for a children's book. What's funny is that I don't remember Dustfinger from the movie, yet he was by far my favorite in the book. The scenes from his point-of-view flowed better than any other scene, and I was compelled to cheer him on even while praying for his survival.

What most likely kept me liking this book more was the inconsistency in the writing. Was the translator at fault? A few moments were quotable, but otherwise, I wouldn't want to read this book aloud. That would be the biggest difference between Inkheart and the book to which it's most often compared: Harry Potter, so often read to friends and family.

Despite the ill-explained absence of her mother, 12-year-old Meggie is happy living with her father in their house full of much-loved books. But one night a mysterious man shows up calling her father by a very strange name, secrets begin to come out, and Meggie discovers that it is possible for stories to become uncomfortably real.At well over 500 pages, this felt a bit slow for a kids' book, especially towards the beginning. But once we learned what was actually going on and the story got rolling, I started to quite enjoy it, and I just kept enjoying it more pretty much all the way through. Of course, the fact that it's carefully calculated to appeal to a book-lover's soul helped a lot! (Even if it did lose some book-lover's points for having horrible, horrible things happen to books over the course of the story. Shudder.)There are two sequels to this, which I happen to already have, and I'll definitely be continuing on with them at some point.

This is a fascinating piece of juvenile literature. I enjoyed the concept of the story elements coming to life. I'm very curious about Book 2, and have it on my to-read list.

Rain fell in the night, a fine, whispering rain. Many years later, she only had to close her eyes and she could hear it, like tiny fingers tapping on the windowpane.it is said that actions speak louder than words, but here words rule. it is a world of magic and danger is only a page away. that would be ok if you were only an observer of this world looking at it through print on a page, but when by all odds it becomes real and people start coming out of the book and bringing the worst of their world with them.Cornelia funk shows the reader there is truly a world between the pages of a book, and that it started long before the pages were wright and will end long after you have finished.

I became interested in this book after watching the movie. The book is a bit different than the movie. The ending is not quite so happy as the movie's ending (no doubt because there are two more books in the series). I like that books are revered in this work and that different characters view books in different ways, even though they all love books. It's an interesting exploration of a "what if" question that most of us have as children.

I absolutely loved this book. I feel like the author took me on a magical journey. The book is about a love of books. What could get better than that?!?! I loved it!!

I hesitated a bit between four or five stars here. I really loved the book. It's major premise is that the father of the main character, Meggie, has a special gift. When he reads aloud, characters and sometimes objects come out of the book world and enter our world. Before he realizes what is happening, Mortimer (the father) reads the horrible villain, Capricorn, out of the book "Inkheart" and that is where all the trouble starts. The story is full of magic, scary, exciting and descriptive. My only small quibble was that it did seem to go on at times and the reverence that all the characters held for books sometimes seemed laid on just a little thick. There were times when I sort of felt like saying, "Okay already, I know books are amazing. But get on with the story." Overall, however, it was great. I will definitely read the next one in the series.

Wonderfully enchanting YA book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! :)It kept me turning pages. Actually, I enjoyed it so much that I really tried to read it as slowly as possible because I wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible. But I became so engrossed in the story, I couldn't keep from reading it quickly. Though the book looks big, reading it went by all too quickly.My only critique is that I found the villains to be a little too 2-dimensional. They felt flat and unrealistic. However, that might have been intentional, and besides, it's a small price to pay for the overall pleasure of reading such a fun and inspiring book.I was torn between giving this book 4 or 5 stars. I give it 5 stars for the reverent way the author describes the books themselves and the way the love of books was conveyed throughout the story.As a side note, this book made me wish I knew a thing or two about book binding! It sounds like a fun and rewarding way to give new life to old books that need a little TLC.I have become selective about what books I add to my personal library. As soon as I finished the library's copy of this book, I ordered my own copy from Amazon. I rarely ever reread books, but this is one I am likely to read again in the future.

went on just enough too long that I was ready for it to end and have no interest in a sequel

This is a strange and magical and wonderful book--I imagine that, if I'd happened onto this as a child, I might have simply read it over and over again, and never then ventured beyond to fantasy. It's that good, that special, with Funke's writing telling the story that makes it feel as if you're being read to, told something that maybe perhaps happened once upon a time, or may happen tomorrow somewhere else that you could almost barely reach, in a dangerous and wonderful fashion.It is violent and dark, but then, lots of children like dark things, as did I. I can see, though, how some parents would shudder at reading this aloud to their children or worry about nightmares, and I'm sure it's given more than one child nightmares since the violence of it surprised me over and over again.But, still, it is wonderful, and if you read fantasy or middle grade fiction at all, ever, I recommend it. My only regret is that the bookstores nearby are closed, and I've neglected to buy the sequel yet. I shall, tomorrow.

amazingly good,

This is great!

Great plot! I hear they're making it into a film. My 5th graders begged me to read this to them everyday until we were through.

A wonderful fantasy book.

If you are an avid lover of books then this is a good little story; yes it is predictable but fun none the less.

This is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for quite some time and now having read it I can't figure out why I put it off for so long. (This, I suppose, is something you could say about all the books I read, because I have quite a large TBR pile and I rarely ever pick up books as soon as I buy them.) However, this book is all about escaping into the story, or rather, accidentally letting the story escape into your life, and I've lately needed a distraction. I've been trying to read two other books but they didn't draw me in the way this one did; this one I couldn't put down until I was done, and now I can only think of all the things I shouldn't have recently purchased so I'd have enough money to buy the sequel! Anyway, suffice to say that this one was very well written.There were only slight few things I didn't like about this book. One, the quotes from other books at each chapter head. I'm not a big fan of this thing that authors like to do, whether it's because they feel the quote explains a bit more about a theme in the chapter or because they derived some inspiration from that particular quote for a scene that would follow. I don't mind if there are a few quotes starting or summing up a book, but to have them at every turn started to get rather annoying. Some of them didn't even seem to tie into the following words, and I started to feel like they were only there to encourage younger readers to pursue the books being quoted. Of course, I am all for spreading the literary love, but it was distracting and, in my opinion, unnecessary.Continuity errors abounds in this book! Most of them were towards the end, though, so I can't explain them without giving anything away, but I did have to go back and read a few things and still didn't find why that backpack was still there or where that character suddenly disappeared to (and it wasn't one of the ones that fell into a book, else I'm sure the characters would have mentioned it as they did every other time). It's frustrating to have to go back two steps and read something I've already read, especially in such an engrossing book. I felt I was inside this one, right there on the sidelines watching as Dustfinger did, but that every so often time had to reverse so that events could be played out again for more clarity. It definitely took away from the experience.All that said, however, Inkheart is full of loveable (and hateable) characters, each of whom touches the reader in some way. Meggie, the daughter of Mo/Silvertongue, who loves her father so dearly that she would do anything to be close to him. Mo, the bookbinder who possesses a special gift - when he reads aloud, characters and objects jump out of the pages. Even Dustfinger, who I understood much better at the end but was completely unsure about throughout the book, was a man who loved his pet marten with the horns Gwin even if the little rascal bit him one too many times. He was slippery and silvery in this book, sometimes hated, pitied, and loved, but in the end found himself a special place. Others included Farid, a boy sprung from One Thousand and One Nights, Elinor, a strong-willed and equally bold-hearted woman who finds value in more than just her old books, and the mysterious Teresa, Meggie's mother who disappeared into Inkheart the day that the villains came out of it.The villains, of course, were as strongly developed characters as the heroes. Another thing to be admired about this book is how strongly woven the characters were. Some extras were included who didn't have quite interesting backstories, but those who mattered were clearly thought out and brought into the world as kicking, screaming, perfectly functional characters. Capricorn was the main villain, a man so full of evil that he cared for nothing and no one but his own rise to power - not even his mother mattered to him, though he mattered very much to her. Basta, the oddest character in my opinion, was a heartless killer who was also very superstitious. I say he was 'odd' because I inevitably found him to be one of my favorite characters, even though I generally agree with the masses and like the "good" characters more than the "bad" ones. There was something spectacular about him that I can't quite put my fingers on, though I suppose I have all of the next book to explore that.The most intriguing part of this book was the inclusion of the author of Inkheart. No, I don't mean Cornelia Funke; there is a book within a book here - the book Mo reads from called Inkheart from which springs Capricorn, Basta, and later more henchmen, and thus there is an author within the book as well. Fenoglio is a funny sort of old man, "turtle-faced" as the book describes him many times. He initially doesn't think any of his characters can harm him, but quickly changes his mind once he is face to face with his most dreaded characters. What a strange twist to bring the author into all of this - there are plenty of books about books, books about the characters within the books, but when does the author ever appear? Do you meet the author in The Neverending Story? It does make one wonder about the authors of such books. I hope they're all quirky old men.Inkheart was overall extremely satisfying and I realize that's not very descriptive. At the moment, it's hard for me to put into words everything I liked about it without having to quote passages from it. One moment I felt my heart constrict, the next my mouth was watering for some apricots, then I found myself feeling extremely triumphant as one of the characters defeated her demons and shone brightly. It was engaging, thoughtful, and very significantly full of books. I love books about books, and so far this one takes the cake. Books are everywhere you turn in Inkheart and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

Uninteresting

Mortimer "Mo" has a wife and a young daughter, and also the ability to read a book out loud and have things from the book materialize in the room with him. This was always a happy fascination with him, until one day he is reading to his wife, and two villains and another fellow materialize, and his wife vanishes into the book. And the villain is truly a heinous one. And all of this happens nine years before the book even begins!As it opens, Mo is living with his daughter, now 12. He works at the job of re-binding old books. Now, after so many years, the characters he read out of a book into our world show up again, and he, his daughter Meggie, and her great-aunt Elinore (an most passionate book collector) become embroiled in the web of the evil Capricorn.Inkheart revolves more around the intricacies of the plot than it does with deep characterizations, so saying much more would spoil the fun. And it is a fun book. I didn't think the ending was quite as good as the rest of the book, but it's well worth the read.

Meggie learns that her father can, by reading, bring fictional characters to life. One of the fictional characters abducts the father and daughter.

A lovely YA novel about the magic of reading. Meggie's father, Mo, has a wonderful (yet cursed) gift of reading aloud - when he does, people and objects from the stories leave their world and enter ours. One day, when Meggie was a child, Mo read a scary story to his wife and the evil characters from the story switched places with Meggie's mother. Try as he might, Mo couldn't make the villains trade back with Teresa. This is the story of the struggle between Meggie's family and the villains that either want to be sent back to their story or want their power in our world to increase. Great fun and adventure for all ages. Definitely recommend.

Great reader. Book is entirely too long. Lots of description

Not just for kids! delightful and compelling - will finish the series

Loved the movie, glad to have finally found the book.

I was looking forward to reading this book, as I had seen the film a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.However, the book, while the film had kept mostly to the book in its telling of the story, just didn't hold my interest. I held out until page 211 and gave up as I found it unpalatable (this is my own opinion and no one else's).

Inkheart is a novel about a girl named Meggie and her father, Mo. Mo has the special ability to make story characters come to life when he reads aloud. When an evil man named Capricorn makes his way into the real world, Meggie and her dad go on an adventure to return Capricorn to his book. This book would be wonderful for an ELA classroom. Inkheart instills in students a love for reading, and truly helps them understand that reading can bring books alive in the mind. This book will help students better understand character development and theme.

The story of Meggie's adventures when she discovers her father has a secret power - by reading aloud, he can summon things out of books - but is wanted by the evil Capricorn, who wishes to keep him prisoner to read at his command. None of the characters in this really clicked for me. The bad guys are Very Bad, the good guys bimble around mostly just getting captured. It is hard not to be charmed by Dustfinger and his horned pine marten, but then you wonder why, as he is consistently amoral and not actually that likeable.

Welp, I guess it was inevitable that, in rereading a bunch of classics from my childhood, I'd find one that just didn't hold up for me. I absolutely adored this book when I first read it--its physical beauty (I had the hardback), its fun characters, its enchanting premise, its literary references--but only three images really stuck with me over the years: Dustfinger performing his juggling and fire-eating acts for tourists; Meggie, on the top bunk bed in a small room, reading Tinker Bell out of Peter Pan; and Meggie reading to Capricorn in an open outdoor space at the finale (I remembered no details of what that space was like or what she actually read).Don't get me wrong! The story is still fun, the writing still beautiful (such lovely similes!), the secondary characters lively, the central premise charming...but it just didn't feel as amazing as it did the first time I read it. Maybe it was a victim of nostalgia: I expected to be as awed as I was the first time, but just wasn't. It takes a long time--almost a third of the book--for Meggie to learn her dad's secret: that when he reads, his wonderful voice summons forth people and objects from the pages of the book in his hands. That's something that readers already know from the jacket description, and I ended up feeling impatient for Meggie to learn the secret and start being more proactive...which she never really is. Much of the plot happens around her and she's only an active agent in it twice, once at the beginning (when she plans to run away to find her father) and once at the end, when she's just fulfilling someone else's plan. I'm not saying she needs to be a kick-butt heroine who does everything herself despite being twelve years old--I actually kind of liked how the adults around her were both whimsical but also, generally, rounded characters aware of their responsibilities--but it would have been nice to see Meggie take a little bit more initiative.Still, Funke's strengths are present and many: she creates a big cast of characters and gives them all striking personalities so that we can tell them apart; many of the side characters are nuanced, with sometimes contradictory desires and emotions (which, honestly, made me a lot more interested in some of them than in Mo and Meggie, who were pretty static throughout--I'd have read a whole book about Aunt Eleanor or Basta, for instance); her writing is brimming with colorful imagery, even if the translation from German seems a bit choppy in places; and the story's pace never flags, even if it is a little bit slower than you'd expect from an adventure. Now, with the review done first, here's a plot summary for my forgetful brain (so I remember more than three things next time):12-year-old Meggie lives constantly on the move with her father, Mo, who is a book binder. They are both voracious readers, though Mo prefers to make up elaborate stories rather than read them aloud. Book obsession runs in the family, so when a young man shows up one dark and stormy night and warns Mo that someone named Capricorn is coming for him, Mo takes up the offer of his long-lost wife's aunt to come fix up some of the books in her sprawling collection. Eleanor doesn't trust Dustfinger, who demonstrates for Meggie his talent as a juggler and (potentially book-endangering) fire-eater, or Meggie, who she assumes is a book-disrespecting child, but she'll take them in for the time being if it gives her a chance to read the mysterious and rare book,Inkheart, that Mo asks her to hide among her collection. But before Eleanor or Meggie can sneak in a read, men dressed in black break into Eleanor's house and steal away Mo and the book disguised as Inkheart. Dustfinger knew these men, and at Meggie's insistence Eleanor reluctantly agrees to let him lead them after Mo, hoping they can trade him for the book. Alas, they are betrayed and captured, and Mo can no longer hide his secrets from Meggie. He tells her about his magical voice and explains that, one night when she was three, he read the high fantasy novel Inkheart aloud to her mother and accidentally read Dustfinger and Capricorn, the book's terrible villain, out of the page. Unfortunately, when Mo reads something out of a book, something always goes the other way as well, and in this case Meggie's mother was a victim of the swap. Dustfinger has been homesick ever since, but Capricorn has made the most of the new world. Now Capricorn wants Mo to read him riches...and his most terrifying minion.Meggie, Mo, Eleanor, Dustfinger, and Farid (accidentally pulled out of One Thousand and One Nights) escape the crumbling town in the Italian hills that Capricorn and his men have tried to make resemble their home in Inkheart. Unfortunately, they've lost their copy of the book, which Mo can't bear, as it feels as if he's lost any chance of regaining his wife. With Meggie in tow, he tracks down Inkheart's author, Fenoglio, and trades his skills as a bookbinder for Fenoglio's help with a mysterious plan. This gets delayed a bit when Eleanor calls in hysterics--Capricorn has taken revenge on her by burning favorite books, and Mo needs to pick her up at the airport.While he's gone, in swoop Capricorn's men, whisking off Meggie and Fenoglio (though, in amusing twist, they don't actually believe he's the author of Inkheart because they can't imagine that an author would still be alive) as bait for Mo. Of course he and Eleanor go after Meggie, joining up with Dustfinger and Farid, who are already on site in the village hoping to reclaim that last copy of Inkheart. Meanwhile, Meggie confirms that she can also read things in and out of books, Capricorn finds out and is delighted, and Fenoglio puts Mo's plan into action: rewriting the end of Inkheart in a way that will hopefully get everyone out of the mess.Here at the end, many characters get complicated: > We learn that Dustfinger has kept secret the fact that Mo's wife is (imperfectly) back in our world, because he hopes she will forget Mo and choose him instead; > Farid, who had followed Dustfinger out of a desire to learn how to manage fire, finds that Mo makes a far better mentor but still decides to follow Dustfinger; > Basta, Capricorn's right-hand man, who loves his cruel knives but is incredibly superstitious and afraid of the fire that is his leader's calling-card, is heartbroken when his father figure throws him into disgrace; > Mo, who has refused to read books for fear of harming others, saves Meggie from having to read the part of Fenoglio's rewrite that kills people; > Eleanor, whose affection for Meggie and Mo has overridden her earliest distrust, opens her once carefully guarded house of books not only to her family but to fantastical refugees from Inkheart (her character arc reminded me a bit of Bilbo: a bit grumpy at first and fond of her comforts, but secretly up for an adventure, even if she complains the entire way);> and, in an interesting contrast, Fenoglio the author turns against his creations but can't let go of the thrill of seeing the power of his written words.Other characters are less complex, but still intriguing: Flatnose and Cockerel, two of Capricorn's brutal men; "the Magpie", Capricorn's mother and housekeeper, who's definitely a Slytherin; and Dustfinger, who's a sympathetic character and who doesn't physically hurt anyone, but whose selfish actions do cause harm; and Farid, whose ultimate choice of companion seems to go against good sense.And Meggie? She decides she wants to be a writer. Kind of an anticlimax compared to everyone else.Oh, and I guess I do have to say something about the romance. I was clipping along through the book, quite happy that 12-year-old Meggie wasn't being saddled with unnecessary romance when she was on the run for her life when...suddenly Farid apparently has a crush on her? And Fenoglio teases Meggie and she doesn't mind, even though she's in the middle of a life-and-death situation? This totally came out of left field and, of course, annoyed me.

A good book, much better than the movie! I really like the thought and ideas that went into this story.