When Inkspell begins, we are reintroduced to our young heroine Meggie, who shares her father’s talent of being able to read things in and out of novels when she reads aloud. Meggie has spent a year in the home of her great aunt Elinor, with her mother Resa and her father Mo, recuperating from the events that transpired in German author Cornelia Funke’s first book of the trilogy, Inkheart.

Dustfinger, a fire-eater who has been stuck in our world for over a decade, finally finds another who shares Mo and Meggie’s gift. Orpheus reads Dustfinger back into Inkheart, but purposely fails to send Farid, the boy from One Thousand and One Nights who has become Dustfinger’s shadow, with him. Farid, who had developed a crush on Meggie in the first book, vows to find a way into the book to find and warn Dustfinger that he is in grave danger.

When Farid finds Meggie, she discovers that not only can she read things in and out of books, but she possesses the ability to read herself into books, and so she proceeds to read herself and Farid into the Inkworld, where she quickly finds the Inkworld author Fenoglio, who was sent there at the end of the first book. It doesn’t take long to find out that playing god, even if you are the creator of the world in question, isn’t an easy task.

Most of the first book was about characters from a fantasy book who try to find their way through the world we know. Most of this second book follows characters from our world as they find themselves in a Renaissance Festival-type world, where there are traveling entertainers called the Motley Folk, an evil king known as the Adderhead, his clever daughter Violante (knows as “Her Ugliness”) married to his enemy, Prince Cosimo, the unspoken leader of the Motley Folk, the Black Prince, whose pet is a giant black bear, and so many more colorful, intriguing characters.

Like the first book, Inkspell is a book that teeters between a children’s and young adult reading level. The story in this is just a little bit darker, throwing my recommendation closer to young teens than pre-teens. Though I thought the first book would appeal more to girls with Meggie being the main character, I think this second book jumps right through all gender barriers and would appeal to both sexes. There’s a little bit of violence and a very minor love story between Farid and Meggie, but nothing to make this unsuitable for younger readers.

Though I haven’t been completely blown away by these books, I’ve enjoyed them enough to look forward to the final installment, Inkdeath, due out sometime (in German) this year. I’ve also lent them to my sister, who I was reminded of numerous times during the course of reading these books. My sister, who loves her books almost more than anything else, who hugs books to her chest when she’s finished reading them, but wishes they weren’t over yet, who cried once when someone dripped candle wax on the pages of her favorite book. So, though these aren’t phenomenal books, they are worth a read, especially to those true bibliophiles out there, who like my sister and I, oftentimes prefer the company of a good book to any other company.




Recommended: Yes

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