Welcome to Week Seven of The Book-Jumper Summer Reading Series! This is my way of inspiring parents who are looking for creative ways to keep their kids reading this summer. All of the books I am jumping into feature protagonists are girls or women and most of our showcased authors are women as well. I will be offering up a combination of themed weeks, great novels, booklist giveaways, and blog post recaps so be sure and stop by to discover more wonderful ways have A Bookjumper Summer while Exploring Our World and Beyond!
Today I am review and sharing the book Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.
The beauty of a book’s adventure is that you have to go no further than your couch to experience it. A good story can help you to escape, make you new friends, even give you a thrill or two. We love our books and the experiences they give us. But what if these stories become a reality? What if the villains that we love to read about come knocking on our door? How much do we love the adventure then?
Meggie and her father Mo Fulchart love books beyond what any one word can express. As a living, Mo is lovingly called a book doctor who cares for and fixes the discarded and dilapidated books, and he has passed along his love of books to his daughter. But there is more to Mo’s connection with books than meets the eye, even more than Meggie knows. Mo has the most magical voice that can pull characters out of their world and place them in ours. This “power” unfortunately leaves Meggie without a mother, Mo without a wife, and a few particularly nasty villains following Mo’s every step.
Another character from this world of villains comes knocking on Mo’s door one night, asking for a particular book and a particular favor that Meggie cannot decode. Warning of the danger of the mysterious “Capricorn,” Meggie, Mo, Dustfinger, and his pet marten Gwin take off to small village where Eleanor, Mo’s aunt-in-law lives. Eleanor’s vast library will be a good hiding place for Mo’s book and a nice cover for Meggie’s sudden absence in school.
This arrival sparks a domino effect of events that one cannot even imagine. Characters being read out of their worlds, Meggie being held hostage, Mo being threatened, escapes, new friends, self-involved authors, and a new ending to a story that was starting to look very dim.
This story illustrates the amazing power of the written word, since “Writing is a type of magic,” as Mo says. I have read many books in my time, and I started way before I read Inkheart in my sixth year of school. But Cornelia Funke’s powerful words made me want to create powerful words of my own. Her characters are so very real and her story so very vivid that for a week, I lived in the adventure of Inkheart right along with Meggie and Dustfinger and Mo. I got lost in the words, in a good way. This second reading, I stretched out my time with the story, thoroughly enjoying it again. And in ten more years, maybe I’ll pick it up again and rediscover its magic. Inkheart is a timeless tale that will never be forgotten.
*Be sure to finish the Inkheart tale with the rest of the trilogy: Inkspell and Inkdeath. You don’t want to miss out on the grand finale!
Somethings To Do
Lynne Farrell Stover has written a simply wonderful extension activity guide for Librarysparks.
Inside this guide you will find very imaginative and inventive games that will bring this book wonderfully to life.
Round Table Card Game (Parts of a Book)
Decoding Famous Quotations
Also included in an extension activity using cryptography with the quotes.
Fantastic Heroes and Vile Villains
Scholastic who actually owns the imprint which publishes author Cornelia Funke, has a great videos of Cornelia talking about what inspired her to write this series of books. You can view the whole video in its entirety or watch it in one of 8 sections. You choose which ones. These are really fantastic videos which give us a behind the scene look into the mind of the author.
Once you’re on the video page, if you look to the right hand side bar you’ll find the individual videos.
As in love with Cornelia Funke’s writing as we are we want you to discover other great reading adventures. Here’s a link to her full list of novels.
I was given a copy of this book for this for review. The opinions expressed are purely my own.
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