Inkheart

By Cornelia Funke

544 Pages

Published by Scholastic Chicken House

★★★★

By Em

 

As some reviews have said, this is a timeless book. You could have read this thirty years ago, or twenty years from now, and still felt the same way about it. I find it to be a charming little book that was easy to enjoy. But you have to be a big reader to really enjoy it. Don't read it if you're someone who is all, "Reading is lame, reading is boring, I only read like one book a month!" You have to love books to love this book.

 

 Meggie's father, Mo, is a "book doctor". He fixes old, mistreated books and returns them to pristine condition. But, he is also Silvertongue, able to read things out of the pages of books. Like perhaps the dead cat from Tom Sawyer, or, you know,millions of dollars of gold. Or even some of the baddest villains to have been written; Capricorn, Basta, and, as I refer to them, their Merry Men. (Though, none of them are merry, so I don't know why I use that...) Soon, Meggie, her father, her great aunt Elinor, and the mysterious fire eater Dustfinger, set out on an epic adventure to end Capricorn's evil reign.

There are so many reasons to love this book. I adored the little book quotes that the author put in front of each of the chapters. They may not have always pertained to what the chapter was about, but it was fun to find the relation when there was one, or to just say, "Hey, Lord of the Rings, I remember that quote!" And, there were lots of quotes from The Wind in the Willows, so I can officially say "HAH!" to Cassidy. That book could have come in handy! (And if you don't know what I'm talking about, read the little blurb above the archive.)

 

The book was also originally written in German, so for a German student, that was very cool. Though, of course, I did not read this in the German form, as my skills are slightly lacking. But, thanks to a Ms. Anthea Bell, all of us non-German experts were able to enjoy Cornelia Funke's wonderful novel, known as Tintenherz in German.

 

 And, for some odd reason, I actually enjoyed the villains. They were real bad bad guys. I mean, kidnapping little children, burning down houses, um, hanging dead roosters everywhere, classic bad guy stuff! And Basta is awesome. He is just an awesomely evil dude! What with his knives and his peppermint and his odd superstitious what nots, he is just a really rich character. Capricorn, he's just a creepy pale dude, but Basta? Awesomeness! 

All in all, I think anyone could read this book and find it enjoyable. There is some many things to love, and each one of them will be different for the reader. It could be the setting, stunning Italy, or the awesome writer, Fenoglio, or just about any other aspect of the book. This is totally something I will have my children read when I'm older, because, as I've said, it is timeless.