Inkheart

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke follows a typical prototype: Prepubscent child in the regular world suddenly finds out that a parallel/other world exists that is much more exciting than one’s own. I’m sure plenty of examples are popping into your head, but you get the idea.

Meggie is your average girl who really enjoys reading–her father, Mo, is a “book doctor” and repairs and restores books. She is perfectly happy in her world until Dustfinger shows up at their door. Dustfinger warns Mo, or Silvertongue as he calls him, that Capricorn and his men are looking for him. Meggie soon finds out that the reason her and Mo have moved so often is to remain a step ahead of Capricorn. It turns out that Mo has a special power: he can read characters/items out of their respective stories (hence the “Silvertongue”). The only downside is that  someone/something from our world disappears in its place, which may explain why Meggie’s mother disappeared ten years ago when Mo accidentally “read” Capricorn into being.

Meggie soon discovers that she has a touch of Mo’s gift as well, and together they escape Capricorn (only to be recaptured later) and set out to find the last remaining copy of Inkheart, together with the author of the book. As the book proceeds, it becomes clear that those with the power not only to read, but to write in a certain manner can travel “into” books and their worlds.

Inkheart ends with a rather predictable happy ending, but of course Meggie can’t just stop thinking about “Inkworld” as she has dubbed it, and so it is left open for a sequel (or two).

A fun read and fine for a 10 year old (reading and writing is good!) but adults may find this book a little slow and difficult to get into– namely because Funke’s characters aren’t as three dimensional as they could be. I have a hard time picturing/relating to any of them–Capricorn’s henchmen are just stereotypical “bad guys” while Capricorn himself is just an archetypal villain. In fact, almost all the characters seem to be basic archetypes- Mo is the caring, overprotective dad, Elinor is the quirky old aunt, and Meggie herself is the spunky little heroine who really hates it when grownups keep secrets!

When the characters are difficult to relate to, the whole story begins to unravel.