Inkheart

Title: Inkheart
Author: Cornelia Funke
Primary Audience/age group: Ages 9-12 *(see recommendation)
Genre: Fantasy
# Of pages: 560
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Year of Release: 2005
Part of a Series? Yes, 1st of 3
Rating: 3 (View Scale)
Description: One cruel night, Meggies 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.
Review: When I was about 5 years old I thought the shadows cars made as they passed by my dark walls at night were friendly ghosts telling me stories. At 10, I believed my dreams were an alternate reality they took me to the place I lived at night, and I returned here to Earth every morning. Inkheart captures that same kind of imagination reading out loud by special, gifted people can pull people and things out of stories and send nearby people and items into a story. How often we wish a well crafted story would never end if only we could jump in for a bit! But, many of the characters of Inkheart are not the sort Id want to visit and live with. They are scary and mean. I really liked the relationship between Meggie and her father, Mo. They were close and really looked out for each other. 

 

Rating:3 for a few instances of violence/meanness and a few curse words.

Positive: The main character Meggie a 12 yr. old girl does things she never believed she would be able to do. She is brave and courageous, I think shes a good example of a young person digging deep and being tough.

 

Spiritual Elements:To me it appeared Capricorn symbolized the Devil very evil and ruthless.

 

Violence:There are some incidents of violence and meanness – Capricorn and his men are not nice and do things such as hang roosters by the neck in the houses of neighbors. More violence is eluded to than is actually described.

 

Language:A few instances of he** and da**.

 

Sexual Content:None

 

Recommendation: I thoroughly enjoyed Inkheart and look forward to seeing the movie with my 13 year old son, who also liked the book. However, I would change the suggested reader age to 12 and up. I feel like Amazons reading age suggestion is a bit young, considering the intense action and evilness, meanness and violence of some of the characters. I have read that the second book, Inkspell is even better than this one.

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