Inkheart

"Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph.) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending, I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming." William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Each chapter of Inkheart begins with a quote from a book that you may or may not recognize but will appreciate. It gives a little clue about what the chapter is about. It seems that all the SJV students who have read this book by Cornelia Funke have said to me "You should read this book —you would really like it". Well, I've finally gotten around to reading this adventurous book and yes I am really enjoying it. It is full of magic and interesting characters and it is about books, storytelling, villains, trickery and a family of book-lovers! What more could one want?

Twelve-year old Meggie has lived an usual life since her mother left and her dad has been hiding the mystery of her disappearance. Now he can't keep it a secret because Meggie and an eccentric aunt are swept up (literally) in the story (literally again) with Mortimer (her dad, who she calls Mo) and must use their ingenuity to escape this frightful fantasy they are in.

One of my favorite quotes from the actual story—"She usually found it so easy to escape somewhere else, to get right inside the minds of people and animals who existed only on paper, so why not now? "Because fear kills everything, " Mo had once told her. "Your mind, your heart, your imagination."