23. Inkspell

Inkspell
By Cornelia Funke
Scholastic Inc., 2005
Narrated by Brendan Fraser

Genre
Low-Fantasy

Awards

• Best Sense Book of the Year: Children's Literature (2006)

Review

Meggie and Dustfinger's apprentence, Farid travel into the book Inkheart to find Dustfinger and warn him that Basta, a villainous man who loves to use knives and hates Dustfinger, had returned to Inkheart not long after Dustfinger himself.  A few days after Meggie disappeared into the book, her parents, Mo and Risa, were still heart-broken and thinking they've lost her forever.  They walk into their house only to find more old enemies that came from the pages of Inkheart.  Basta (who hadn’t returned yet), Mortola, and Orpheus had broken in, looking for Mo, Risa, and Meggie to exact revenge on for killing their old leader (also Mortola's son), Capricorn.  When Meggie is nowhere to be found, Mortola has Orpheus read all of them back into Inkheart where Mortola promptly shoots Mo with a gun brought with them from Mo's world.  Meanwhile, after warning Dustfinger, Meggie searches for the book's author, Fenolgio, who had come to live in the book himself, but soon discovers her parents were captured and are in the book and Mo is gravely wounded.  The rest of the story finds the small family trying to finally be reunited outside of captivity, and follows Farid as he tries to keep Dustfinger alive.  Fenolgio tries along the way to write beautiful words for Meggie to read and help him "fix" his story, but everything seemed to turn against his intentions, like a wish made to a genie that wasn't specific enough.  Funke did a wonderful job of trying to include readers whose first experience of the Inkworld is Inkspell by including character synopses at the beginning.  There is also a map for readers to follow the characters as they travel the vast and magical Inkworld, and small illustrations scattered throughout the book, presenting the characters and making the book itself seem as magical as the words in it.

Opinion

This is a great continuation to Inkheart, the first book in the series, but it can't quite stand on its own.  Many events are referenced from the first book, and not all of them are explained enough for those new to the series to be fully aware of the whole story.  A fairly easy read despite its thickness, Inkspell would be a great option for tweens who enjoy the adventure and magic often found in fantasy.

Ideas

Since this book was originally written in German and translated, this may be a good book for a display about popular books originating for foreign countries.  Many of the descriptions in the books are detailed enough to suggest that readers choose their favorite scene and attempt to illustrate it, like an illuminator would do in the book.