Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, which is the first of a trilogy oft referred to as “The Inkworld Trilogy,” is based on a novel concept, and was an interesting and very enjoyable read. It was translated from German, but the translation is excellent.

In Inkheart, Meggie and her father, Mo, are on the run from a villain named Capricorn, a violent and thoroughly unpleasant man from a place known as Inkworld, who was brought to our world by accident. Mo, a bookbinder by trade, has an interesting ability, which is more often than not a curse, that brought Capricorn here. Whenever he reads aloud from a book, someone or something from the book will be read into our world, and something from ours will replace it in the book.

When Meggie was an infant, he read aloud from a book titled “Inkheart,” and several of the book’s villainous characters appeared in his living room, and Meggie’s mother Theresa, or “Resa,” vanished into the book.

Several years later, in the present day, Meggie is now around twelve years old or so, and Capricorn is hunting Mo, or Silvertongue as he is referred to as by the Inkworld characters, in order to have Mo’s powers on his side.

I’ll try not to give too much more about the plot away, but suffice to say that things get unpleasent for the characters pretty quick, and they end up working together with Inkheart’s author Fenoglio, Meggie’s book-obsessed aunt Elinor, a fire-wielding character from Inkworld called Dustfinger, and a character from The Arabian Nights.

Inkheart was a great fantasy book set in the present day, something I don’t see too often, but enjoy once in awhile. The sequel, Inkspell, in my opinion, was even better, actually taking place in Inkworld, and having an even more interesting story. Get started on Inkheart; the third book in the trilogy is coming out in October, and an Inkheart movie is on the way.