Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

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Summary A tale of kidnap, deceit, magic and murder, this is not a tale for the faint hearted!

A story within a story, Inkheart tells the tale of a book of the same name owned by Mortimer Folchart who is a book restorer who lives in a remote farmhouse with his 12-year-old daughter Meggie. Mo, as he is known to his daughter, has not told Meggie about his ‘gift’, that he can read characters out of books and that is why he never reads to her aloud. He has also not told her that whenever his magical reading voice summons someone out of a book that someone from this world disappears, like her mother disappeared nine years ago at the same time that Capricorn and his cruel henchmen appeared. Capricorn wants the book for himself and the will go to any lengths to get it. Dustfinger, also summoned from the book warns Mo that Capricorn is on his tail, but Dustfinger longs to be put back into the story from whence he came and he will do almost anything to get back so can Mo and Meggie truly trust him and how can Mo keep the book, his last link to Meggie’s mother, safe? A tale of kidnap, deceit, magic and murder, this is not a tale for the faint hearted!

A wonderfully written and original story; the characters of Meggie and Mo are warm and you truly care for them, as you do for Meggie’s feisty great-aunt Elinor. The character of Capricorn is as chilling as you would expect from someone with such a dark as ink heart and you feel both anger and pity in equal measure for Dustfinger the wandering fire eating performer. There are also plenty of interesting support characters too, not least Basta.

There are some sections of the book that are a fast paced and others that allow you to slow down and almost smell the tang of lemon and olive scent in the air of the Italian countryside where the book is set. It is a very thick book and not a size I would have thought of tackling at the age of 12 but if you are truly serious about reading then you will receive an awful lot of pleasure from persisting with this tale.