“I’m sure it must be very comfortable sleeping with a hard, rectangular thing like that under your head,” her father had teased the first time he found a book under her pillow. “Go on, admit it, the book whispers its story to you at night.” — Page 1
I must admit, when I was a young girl, I slept with my books. I would tuck my Nancy Drew mystery (or any other book) and slide an arm under my pillow to prop it up a little while feeling for it to make sure it was still there. So when I read that sentence at the start of Inkheart, I got really excited. I am sure a lot of book-lovers are like that as well. Come on, admit it! *GRIN*
In Inkheart, Meggie’s father, Mortimer Folchart (Meggie calls him Mo for short), has a peculiar ability. Characters literally come to life when he reads aloud from books. When Meggie was a baby, he read from Inkheart, and several of the book’s wicked characters ‘crashed’ into his cottage. Actually, that is not the first time he discovered his power. When the mayhem is over, i.e. after he read Capricorn (the baddie) and some of his men out of the book, he discovers something even worse: he had read his wife INTO the story! So the modus operandi is this: when something is read out, something has to go in as well. Meggie never knew what happened to her mother, only her father’s vague remark that she went away.
Now twelve, Meggie does not know her father possesses this power. She also doesn’t question why her father never read aloud to her, at least not until the bad guys bring it to her attention. Capricorn has searched for Mo for years and calls him Silvertongue. He has ‘plans’ for Mo and, to accomplish his dark goals, uses Meggie to force her father into compliance—that is, read aloud.
Other important characters—Dustfinger (a talented, two-faced guy who plays and performs with fire); Meggie’s bookworm aunt, Elinor; Fenoglio, the author of Inkheart; and even Dustfinger’s horned marten named Gwin—make the story all the more engaging. Elinor and Fenoglio are dragged into the mess and suffer terrible consequences, especially Elinor. Poor, poor, Elinor and her books… Do read Inkheart to find out what happened.
This is a good story and one that keeps the reader engaged until the end. I firmly believe that book lovers will appreciate it even more and would understand the obsession with ink and paper. I love the ending. And now I look forward to reading the second book, Inkspell, in the trilogy.
