Inkheart Review

Inkheart is a book worth reading, even if you just read the quotes at the beginning of every chapter.  Each one of those quotes is like an old love tugging on your heart.  Inkheart was clearly written by a book lover for book lovers.  Everyone else may enjoy the excellent tale of adventure, magic and fantasy.  However, if books are one of the true joys in your life, I sense Cornelia Funke crafted this story just for you.

In case you missed the movie previews, etc., the story is an adventure about a girl named Meggie and her book repairman father who must overcome an evil character who accidentally comes to life out of a book.  It is a long book (500+ pages).  While the writing is excellent, it does ask the reader to stay focused for a very long time while the ‘adventure’ is not always fast paced.  It also has some extremely evil characters, and deals with death, blackmail and betrayal.  The youngest I would recommend this book to is an advanced 10 year old.

In addition to being a great story, this book also examines a complex idea:  the concept of something we create taking on a life of its own. I was reminded of when my daughter went to pre-school and for the first time outside influences were starting to shape her mind.  The author character in Inkheart was faced with a similar revelation when his ‘perfect’ characters actually come to life and turn on him.  Ultimately the author is still in control…well, sort of.  It is a good thing as parents that we don’t get to control our children’s whole story.  It is just a little jolting sometimes when you realize that they are reading books with complex concepts that may help shape their whole lives.

I do recommend this book, but not for everyone.  Inkheart is great for a more advanced reader who loves books.

Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic Series

Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey

When my students bring back books I have lent them, I can tell how good a book is by the expressions on their faces. Every one  who has borrowed this book has come back looking very happy and has had the same question, “When is the sequel coming out?”

Skin Hunger is two stories told in alternate chapters separated in time but united in plot. It is as complicated as it sounds, but it is magically executed. What the characters strive for in the earlier time has been fully realized in the later time; what feels ominous but hopeful in the earlier time darkens greatly in the later time. The fear-inspiring unknown unites the two. The effect is deliciously thought- provoking. The resolutions of both stories lean ever more closely towards each other as the novel progresses.  That connection appears imminent as the last chapter ends. It is no wonder my students breathlessly ask for the next book. I can hardly wait myself.

High school students and avid middle school readers love this book. There is romance, cruelty, villainry, magic, and sorrow. While I found nothing inappropriate in this book, the themes are mature – the abuse of power, the elusiveness of compassion –  and the plot is complex. However, the depth of the two main characters – Sadima in the earlier time period and Hahp in the later – make the complex plot easier to follow. This is a book for teenagers that their parents and teachers can enjoy reading.

Gaby Chapman

The Good Thief

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

Author Hannah Tinti sets her novel in an America of a bygone century when the completely vulnerable had only the protection of the rare and random, caring human heart. Ren, an orphan boy with an unexplained missing hand, finds that refuge in the company of a collection of some of society’s most broken souls. The Good Thief couples the boy’s discovery of compassion and loyalty with the discovery of his own mysterious and tragic past.

A ready-made classic, this story is told from the first-person perspective of Ren. Many multi-faceted characters with stories of their own enter and intertwine with his story as he is drawn irrevocably through his destiny.   Suspense builds from the drum-beat of assaults on the reader’s instinctual demarcations between right and wrong as well as from the increasingly precarious balance between the perils that befall the boy and his projectory toward revelation.

As an adventure story with a clear progression of events related through the perspective of a twelve-year old boy, The Good Thief has been enjoyed by some of my more well-read high school students and older middle school students. The complexity of moral values as well as a fair amount of gruesome scenes might be too much for younger middle school students, however. Also, the plot does have an old-fashioned feel to it that reluctant readers may not have the patience for, even though the pace definitely picks up as the story moves along. I enjoyed reading it, and I would recommend it to adults, particular reluctant-reading adults who might want to be caught reading by their children.

Gaby Chapman

The Thief: The Queen’s Thief Series

 

The Thief

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

A re-created Greek myth and territory reminiscent of post-medieval Greece form the background and setting for this tale of political intrigue, adventure and mystery. The protagonist is a young thief of the Hermes variety—mischievous, clever without parallel, and enormously self-confident. A good proportion of the book consists of a long and richly described arduous journey, by foot and by horse, during which the thief, Gen, gets to know the Magus, who has freed him from prison for his own purposes, as well as the other three that accompany them.

Though plenty of heart-stopping action does break out in the last half of the book, the quiet, slow pace of the journey may discourage less experienced readers.  For more confident middle school readers, the in-depth character development in the first half of the book will be worth the slower pace as it greatly enriches the impact of what follows. This book would be a good transition story for a reader moving from the lighter plots of children’s stories to the more demanding plots of books for older readers.

Well-liked mostly by middle school boys and a few girls, The Thief, published in 1996, has also appealed to a few high school kids in my classes. A Newbery Honor Book, ALA Notable Book, and  ALA Best Book for Young Adults, it has two sequels: The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia, both of which continue the theme of political intrigue and adventure, but also move into slightly more mature themes, such as the cruelty of dysfunctional romance. While the first book would be appropriate for advanced elementary school readers, the second two may not be.

Gaby Chapman

Keys to the Kingdom Series

Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix

Mister Monday

Though not a fan of fantasy, I do read it occasionally to keep up on what my students are reading. The richly imagined descriptions in this series made it one that I enjoyed reading. An asthmatic seventh grade boy, Arthur Penhaligan, is the hero for this seven book fantasy. Handicapped and with the odds always against him, he does not give up trying to do what’s right. A rich stew of surreal Alice in Wonderland-type imagery and characters, elements reminiscent of myths, an alternate universe, endless hair’s breadth escapes, grisly horror, and mystery, Keys to the Kingdom never lags. However, this series is not just a vividly imagined movie in print for a happy reader to follow. Keys to the Kingdom is a thinking kid’s fantasy. If one pays close enough attention, answers to the great questions of the origins of our world and our human natures might come close to being answered.

Well-liked by both boys and girls in my middle school classes, this series is favored by boys; and though written at a seventh grade reading level, is also well-liked by high school boys into about tenth grade. The interest level is rated at grade five through eight. Both the complexity of the plot and the at times nightmare-like imagery may keep this from being a book for fifth grade and under, unless a child in these years is looking to be challenged and a little frightened.

The series starts with Mister Monday and moves through each day of the week: Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday, and the eagerly awaited and yet un-named Sunday episode.

Gaby Chapman