Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)
by Cornelia Funke
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Book Summary Information
Author: Cornelia FunkeBrand: Scholastic Inc.
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-06-01
ISBN: 0439709105
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780439709101
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)
Book Review: Lacks Magic, weak plot, few thrills.
Summary: 3 Stars
The premise of this book sounds very exciting - an everyday father reads aloud from books, which he loves and restores, and finds that some of the characters shift into this world, while something from this world gets shifted into the world of the story. Sadly, he loses his wife this way and is left to raise his daughter (Meggie) alone, fleeing from the "evil" Capricorn.
The reader learns all of these facts in exposition, not live action!!! A very important distinction, because this story, while having a great idea, fails to execute it in a way that evokes magic or drama.
The author plainly loves words and stories and is masterful at sensory details, so the first chapters draw you in. But her plot is annoying at best. What you get in the first chapter is the same as the rest - a lot of thinking and talking, but very little doing. Many many many pages are devoted to the characters driving from one house to another, or escaping from a village on foot through trails and bemoaning the fact that it's cold, they're tired, and there are snakes, oh dear, but hey, snakes don't come out at night, so who cares that there are snakes? This is literally explained to us by the characters. Or they spend lots of time shut up in a room, complaining about the lack of freedom.
The problem is the author forgot about story structure. She makes Meggie and her father the protatonists when the theme of the story (displaced characters) is best portrayed by the characters who were shifted out of their world, namely, Meggie's mother and Dustfinger. Dustfinger is by far the most interesting character and the only one with any kind of character arc. I guess the author thought a childrens' book has to be told from the child's point of view, but Meggie is a very passive character. She does very little and knows nothing, having been protected all her life from the truth by her father, who is also completely passive until he's forced into action when Meggie gets into trouble.
The supposedly terrifying bad guy refuses to use his real name, much like Voldemort in Harry Potter, but is unable to think up a more dasterdly name than Capricorn, his astroligical sun sign. Capricorn is the "Inkheart" of the title, but like his chosen name he isn't all that scary. He threatens a lot, but since he always wants something from the characters and needs them alive and unharmed for them to do his bidding, all he does is shut them inside a room. No child is going to be terrified by a guy who only gives people a time out!
His main henchman had the potential of being scary, but we learn his fatal flaw very soon - he's terribly supersitious. Threaten him with a poetic curse and he shudders.
The heroes have no magic beyond juggling tricks and the gift of reading fiction and making things shift from the story into this worold and vice versa. But they have no control over this gift. The characters from other stories are just human, they have no magical gifts.
All of the story takes place in this world, most of it in a deserted village that Capricorn has taken over. It's dirty and lacking any luxury. Definitely NOT the stuff of escapism!
It's as if the author had no idea what age she was trying to appeal to. She makes the book very very long, which is more appropriate for older readers, but keeps the context friendlier than the Lemony Snicket books even though Meggie is all of twelve. There is no mystery to be solved, so no anticipation is generated. Capricorn has no grand plan to take over the world, so we don't really care if he is foiled or not. All in all, there aren't a lot of reasons to spend good money on this book. Definitely buy it used is my recommendation.
Summary of Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)
From internationally acclaimed storyteller Cornelia Funke, this bestselling, magical epic is now out in paperback!
One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.
This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.
One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.
This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.
Meggie?s father, Mo, has an wonderful and sometimes terrible ability. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book?s wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie?s mother in.
Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!
Cornelia Funke?s imaginative ode to books and book lovers is sure to be enjoyed by fans of her breakout debut, The Thief Lord, and young readers who enjoyed the similarly themed The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert
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