Empowering Bright & Gifted Children

 

Author: Cornelia Funke

Interest Level: Middle Grades (4-8)
ATOS Reading Levels: 5.4-5.6
AR Points: 23.0-29.0 each
Publisher Recommended Age: 9-12
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Book Type: 3 Book Set includes 2 paperback and 1 hardcover book

 

 

Inkworld is a series of three fantasy novels written by German author Cornelia Funke, comprising Inkheart (2003), Inkspell (2005), and Inkdeath (2007). The books chronicle the adventures of teenager Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud.

 

Mostly set in Northern Italy and the parallel world of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.

 

Originally released in German-speaking Europe, beginning with the first novel Inkheart in 2003, the books have since gained popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The English translation of the third book, entitled Inkdeath, by Anthea Bell is due out in October 2008.

 

 

 

In Inkheart, the life of twelve-year-old heroine, Meggie, discovers that her father Mortimer, a professional bookbinder, has the unusual ability to transfer characters from books into the real world when he reading aloud. Scared by his own talents, Mo once brought four characters of a book entitled Inkheart to life while reading from the novel, including Dustfinger, a fire eater; his pet marten Gwin; Capricorn, the book's villain; and Basta, Capricorn's right-hand man — in bitter exchange of his wife Resa, who disappeared tracelessly into the so-called Inkworld of the book.

 

After many years Dustfinger returns to pay Meggie and her father a visit, advising them to flee the country to escape Capricorn and his following who are in search of Mo and his Inkheart copy. The three of them eventually leave to hide at Meggie's great-aunt Elinor's house in Northern Italy but end up being dragged off by Basta and his companions to the near village of Capricorn where Mo is forced to read both treasure and an evil creature, The Shadow, out of the book, using Meggie as his hostage.

 

Soon Meggie discovers she has the same talent as her father, and with the help of Inkheart author Fenoglio, her re-read mother, and One Thousand and One Nights character Farid she helps killing Capricorn and his entourage with the power of her reading talent.

 

School Library Journal: "Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. " Grades 4-8.

 

 

Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of INKHEART, the book whose characters became real. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the tale has become desperate.

 

When he finds a crooked storyteller with the ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval world of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long, both are caught inside the book, too. But the story is threatening to evolve in ways neither of them could ever have imagined.

 

School Library Journal: "Meggie longs to see the enchanted world she has only encountered through the pages of a book and travels with Farid into the story." Grades 5-8.

 

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review): "Spellbinding...expertly mixes joy, pain, suspense, and magic."

 

ALA Booklist (Starred Review): "In short, a booklover's book."

 

 

The Adderhead--his immortality bound in a book by Meggie's father, Mo--has ordered his henchmen to plunder the villages. The peasants' only defense is a band of outlaws led by the Bluejay--Mo's fictitious double, whose identity he has reluctantly adopted. But the Book of Immortality is unraveling, and the Adderhead again fears the White Women of Death. To bring the renegade Bluejay back to repair the book, the Adderhead kidnaps all the children in the kingdom, dooming them to slavery in his silver mines unless Mo surrends. First Dustfinger, now Mo: Can anyone save this cursed story?

 

 

Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in the German town of Dorsten. As a child, she wanted to become an astronaut and or a pilot, but then decided to study Education ("Pädagogik") at the University of Hamburg. After finishing her studies, Funke worked for three years as a social worker, focusing on children with a deprived background. She had a stint illustrating books, but soon began writing her own stories, inspired by the sorts of stories that had appealed to the deprived children she had worked with.

 

During the late 1980s and the 1990s, Funke established herself in Germany with two children's series, namely the fantasy-oriented Gespensterjäger (Ghosthunters) and the Wilde Hühner (Wild Chicks) line of books. Her international breakthrough came with the fantasy novel Dragon Rider (1996), which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 78 weeks, and was continued with The Thief Lord (2000, translated into English in 2002), which immediately climbed to the #2 position of the New York Times bestseller list, stayed there for 19 weeks and sold 1.5 million copies.

 

Her follow-up novel was Inkheart (2003), which won the 2003 BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature award. Inkheart was the first part of a trilogy which was continued with Inkspell (2005), which won Funke her second BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature award.

 

As a testament to her growing importance, Time magazine listed Funke as one of the "100 most influential people of 2005", calling her the "German J. K. Rowling" and praised her work as a mix of "(underrated) prose, moody, unpredictable characters and the instinctive feel of her plots, which are happily devoid of emotional manipulation".

 

The trilogy was finally concluded in Inkdeath (published in Germany in 2007, English version Spring 2008, American version Fall 2008).

 

Funke married printer Rolf Funke in 1981. They have two children, Anna (b. 1989) and Ben (b. 1994). For the next 24 years, the Funke family lived in Hamburg, before they moved to Los Angeles in May 2005. Rolf Funke died of cancer in 2006 in a Los Angeles hospital.

 

Visit her personal website at www.corneliafunkefans.com