Inkheart :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Incredible Work of Fantasy

2008-05-09
I'm a huge fan of fantasy and fiction novels, and this one is just great. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who is a lover of books, and who has ever wondered what would happen if the characters they loved so much came alive.

A Fantastic Read!!!

2008-05-02
I have owned Inkheart for awhile and have put off reading it for other books that I have. Boy, was that a mistake! I finally decided to read it and I loved it!
The story is about a girl named Meggie who loves books. Her father, Mo, loves books as well. Their house is filled with them. Even though they both read to themselves, Meggie noticed her father has never read out loud to her. One night a dark stranger appears at their house. From there the book just keeps on going. There is so much more to the book. I don't want to create any spoilers for those who have not read it though. The main part of this story is that Meggie finds out her Dad can read people and objects right out of any book. The catch is that something from this world must replace what he reads out of the other world. Meggie father realized that this might just be as much of a curse as it is a gift.
The book was fast paced and an enjoyable read. My favorite part about it is the way Meggie, her father and her great aunt all have such a love and respect of books. That reminds me so much of me that I fell in love with the book from the beginning. I highly recommed this book!

Inkheart ROX!!!!!

2008-04-12
I personally love the book Inkheart. The charcters are well-rounded and fun to get to know as you follow them on this epic journey of excitement and adventure as they face the dangers that come with having the strange ability to read characters out of books. A heart warming story and a true page turner. You are going to LOVE IT!!!~Mrs.Lovett

A Page Turner

2008-04-06
Inkheart tells the tale of 12 year old Meggie, her bookbinder father, and their journey through books. Both Meggie and Mo (her father) have the magical gift of calling characters out of books. This well crafted fantasy appeals to young teens, who best like magical mystery and excitement. The main villain of the novel, Capricorn is described viciously, yet when push came to shove he was a flat and weak character. Mo and Dustfinger, another character pulled from the text, describe the wickedness of Capricorn and his men, which is very dark. But when the action is happening, the villains are easy to outsmart and defeat in the end. A captivating read for children, a bit predicatable for an adult reader.

Very detailed, unique and great story

2008-03-11
What a great story!
This is quite the page-turner! I was driven to read more by both the action/adventure and the plot/conclusion. Both are excellently written! Funke's style of writing (and indeed the translation made by Anthea Bell) makes for a smooth and beautiful read.
Wonderfully drawn and very detailed characters fill this book from cover to cover, each character being unique and complete. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, which adds another interesting dimension to the story and plot.
The book doesn't contain many light-hearted chapters (as you would find in Harry Potter or Narnia) but the wonderful lead characters are such good people that the book is far from dark.
The whole idea of the story is beautiful and intriguing! And the quotes that begin each chapter are perfectly chosen.
I kept wondering if there were areas that Funke could have taken out to make the book shorter - but I couldn't really find anything that wouldn't mar the story in some way, and I was grateful there were as many pages to read as there were!
A wonderful read and an interesting story that I think has become a new favorite!

Uses and Abuses of Stories

2008-02-15
Meggie's father, Mo, has an wonderful and sometimes terrible ability. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book's wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie's mother in.

Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!

Cornelia Funke's imaginative ode to books and book lovers is sure to be enjoyed by fans of her breakout debut, The Thief Lord, and young readers who enjoyed the similarly themed The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

Amazing 2008-02-13
I recently read the book "Inkheart". This was my favorite book of all time. This is an awesome book for people who like fantasy and magic!
It is about a young girl named Meggie and her father, Mo, who can read things out of books. Her father first discovered his powers when Meggie was three. He was reading to her and her mother when her mother, Teresa, was read into the book! The book he was reading was called Inkheart. So when her mother was read into the book, evil rulers were read out. So our world and the world of Inkheart became one and started their own story.
One of my favorite chapters in the book was chapter 56, "The Shadow." It's when the shadow beast from the land of Inkheart is called to do a deed for Capricorn, one of the evil rulers read out of the book. It really pulls the whole book together and explains a lot.

The theme of this book is that no matter what book you are reading, there is always a bigger story behind it. So join Meggie along her journey to control her gift as she tells the story of the land of Inkheart.
-- Hailey McLaughlin

Long and Dull. 2008-01-30
I ATTEMPTED reading this book years ago, and still it makes me feel sick to think about it. It could have been a good book, had the author not gone on for pages about useless information, which I'm sure bored readers.

Starts off strong, boring middle, good ending 2008-01-28
After reading all the positive reviews on this book, I bought this book and read one chapter a night to my 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter. Before I continue, let me just say that my children absolutely loved it from start to finish.

Now here's my review. First, the book starts off very strong and pulls you into the plot very quickly. I love the mystery surrounding the characters Dustfinger, Capricorn, and Silvertongue. After that, the plot gets tiresome very quickly and they seemingly do the same thing over and over again. I think reading it aloud did a good job of keeping my kids interested otherwise I think they may have gotten bored with reading it. There are at least 200 unnecessary pages in this book. I kid you not. I'm curious to see if the film cuts out a bunch of these completely useless scenes that add absolutely nothing to the plot.

Funke tries to save the book at the end and she actually does a pretty good job of it. However, it wasn't enough to raise my rating above three stars. Also, I wouldn't recommend this book for kids under 9. I found myself explaining a lot of adult themes to my children and I kind of cringed as I read certain sections of the book. If someone could tell me an easy way of explaining what an "execution" is to a 6 year old, I'd love to hear it.

I'm a bit reluctant to read "Inkspell" based solely on the adult themes in "Inkheart" but my kids are adamant so I'll probably relent. I just hope I don't have to cringe or "edit" too much as I read it.

Great Fantasy! 2008-01-21
Inkheart is an excellent story based on the concept that a really fine reader can actually enter the story's world or bring a character in the story into this world by reading aloud. The setting is in our own modern times, so the characters from our world take their knowledge of things into the story world and story character bring their magic into this one. In the story world, the fine reader can alter the narrative by writing a character in or out of the story, or rewriting the sequence of events. This is the first of a three-part series. I've now read this book and Inkspell, the second and am awaiting the third.