Inkheart

Book Moot mentioned this book a few months ago, and the movie plans of it. I'd never heard of the book, so I requested it from the library and read it. I couldn't put it down. Sarah and Jacy saw it and tried to read it whenever I put it down, so I bought a copy. I also bought the sequel, Inkspell, and I'm reading it now.

This is a pretty typical "quest" story, but I loved the plot: A man, a bookbinder by trade, reads aloud and as he reads, the story he reads comes to life. Really. Characters come out of the book into our world. Years ago he accidentally read nasty characters out of a fantasy story, and at the same time his wife was read into the story. Their little daughter, Meggie, was only three at the time, and was unaware of what had happened. As the story begins, she is twelve, and thinks her mother left them when she was very young. She doesn't know why her father has never read aloud to her.

Meggie and her father, "Mo," are hunted by the nasty characters of the fantasy story, Inkheart. They want Mo to read the story aloud again in hopes that they'll be read back into the book. Mo has to explain to Meggie what is happening and why. The characters and the chase and events along the way make very good reading. Each chapter is also prefaced by a suitable quote from a children's book, thus hinting at the chapter's content. As Meggie and her father are trying to evade the really bad character, Capricorn, they're also trying to find a way to get Meggie's mother back.

The book has a satisfactory ending - among books and an aunt traveling the globe hunting down rare editions - and a good set-up for the sequel.