Review #77: The Chronicles of Narnia

Dad:  What books did we re-read as a family over the summer?
Kids:  Narnia!!!
Lily (age 7):  We called it the "Summer of Narnia."
Gracie (age 10):  On the first night, we made a big fort in the living room.
Isaac (age 12):  A big fort out of blankets.
Gracie:  We ate popcorn in the fort while we listened.
Isaac:  Dad made tickets for "The Summer of Narnia" and hid them all over.  We had to find them before we could go inside the fort.
Dad:  Before we talk about specific books, tell me about the series as a whole.
Gracie:  In each book, these kids travel from our world to a world called Narnia.
Lily:  I like all the exploring in the books.  One time they went in a boat to the End of the World.  One time they went underground to the center of the earth.
Dad:  Is it the same kids in every book?
Gracie:  Not in every book.  Sometimes there are new kids.
Dad:  Who is the one character that appears in every Narnia book.
Gracie:  Aslan!
Elijah (age 5):  He is a lion.
Gracie:  Narnia is the place where a lion is king.
Elijah:  If we ever get a lion for a pet, I would name it Aslan.
Dad:  There are seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia series.  But why don't you each choose one book, and then you can tell us about that particular book in the series.  Which one are you going to pick, Lily?
Lily:  "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."  It is about a wardrobe.  And a witch.  And a lion.
Dad:  Ha ha ha...  Well, there's a good summary of the book's title.
Lily:  These four kids go to a house in the country.  Lucy goes into a wardrobe and comes into Narnia.  It is a place where animals can talk.  And the trees are alive.  And there was a faun!
Isaac:  Mr. Tumnus.  Goat man.
Lily:  Lucy went to the goat man's house, and they had tea.  And there is an evil witch who makes it always winter.
Gracie:  She enchants their brother Edmund by giving him Turkish Delight.
Lily:  They try to save him from the witch.  The beavers help them.
Isaac:  Mrs. Beaver tried to bring everything along on the trip.
Gracie:  "Thank heavens I brought the butter knife!"  She even tried to pack her sewing machine.  "You don't suppose my sewing machine will fit, do you?"
Lily:  The witch can turn people into stone with her wand.  But Aslan breathes on the stones and he makes the stone alive.  The animals turn back to how they were before because of his breath.
Dad:  What was your favorite part of the book?
Lily:  I like how you can get through the wardrobe into Narnia.
Dad:  Does it make you want to hunt around our house to see if there are any nooks that can take you places?
Lily:  Well...  I have tried to once.  In your closet.  It didn't work.
Gracie:  I've already checked in all the closets about twenty times.
Isaac:  Me too.  In my closet.
Dad:  You guys are only checking closets?  Maybe that's your problem.
Elijah:  I think a hidden place is behind the bookcase.
Dad:  Okay, next book...  Elijah's turn!  Which book are you going to pick?
Elijah:  "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."
Dad:  What is the Dawn Treader?
Elijah:  It is a boat that was shaped like a dragon.
Dad:  Who was on the boat?
Elijah:  Reepicheep.  He is a mouse.  He likes to fight people with a sword.  I think Reepicheep is braver than me.
Dad:  Who else was on the boat?
Elijah:  King Caspian.  He wanted to go to the End of the World.
Dad:  What did they see on their way there?
Elijah:  A place where dreams come true.  Some dreams can be really scary.  They also found a dragon's cave.  Eustace was sleeping in the dragon's cave.  When he woke up, he turned into a dragon.  He put on a bracelet when he was a boy, and when he turned into a dragon it hurt because he grew.
Dad:  How did he stop being a dragon?
Elijah:  There were different kinds of skins on him, and he had to scratch them to get them off.  It didn't work very good when he did it.  But when Aslan did it, it worked better.  Then Eustace turned back into a boy.
Dad:  What are some other places they discovered?
Elijah:  There was a place where if somebody puts part of themself in the water, it turns to gold.  If you went swimming, you would turn to gold.  And there was a place with some people that were invisible.  One footed people.
Isaac:  Dufflepuds.
Gracie:  Elijah covered everything pretty good.  Wait!  The mermaid people!  They saw mermaid people, and Reepicheep thought they were declaring war.  So he freaked out and jumped into the water.
Dad:  What was your favorite part, Elijah?
Elijah:  I like it when Eustace turns into a dragon.
Dad:  Who's next?  What book are you going to pick, Isaac?
Isaac:  "The Silver Chair."  It is about finding a prince.  The lost prince of Narnia.
Dad:  Who are the kids in this book?
Isaac:  Eustace and Jill.  And there's also Puddleglum.  You can't forget Puddleglum!
Gracie:  Puddleglum is the best!
Elijah:  Puddleglum is my favorite character.  He is a webbed-hand and webbed-footed guy.
Isaac:  Puddleglum is a marshwiggle.  They are tall muddy people.  He is the most carefree of all the marshwiggles, which is kind of freaky because he is always looking on the downside.  He's always sad about stuff.
Dad:  Where do their adventures take them?
Isaac:  The first place they go is to the giants' castle.  But they had to escape.  They found out they were going to be made into pies for the Autumn Feast.  They tried to get out as fast as they possibly could.  Then they fell into this pit and met these people that live underground.  This is the Underworld.
Gracie:  There is no light there except dull gray.  And there is a huge, huge, huge underground lake.
Isaac:  The queen of the Underworld is a witch.  And the Silver Chair traps the prince under a spell.
Gracie:  "In Aslan's Name, let me go!"
Dad:  That is probably my favorite family reading moment EVER.  The first time we read these books together, a few years ago...
Gracie:  I was freaking out at that part.  I was jumping up and down.
Dad:  You were literally screaming out loud at the characters in the book, "Listen to him! Listen to him!"  You were so emotionally involved in the story.
Gracie:  This time, my favorite part was Puddleglum's speech.  "You might be right.  There might be no Aslan.  But I'm going to keep following him, even if he isn't real.  Even if we are making him up, he's way better than what you've got down here!"  Only, he said it way more dramatically than me.
Dad:  How about you Isaac?  What was your favorite part?
Isaac:  The snake lady.  The witch turns into a giant snake, and they have to try to kill her.
Dad:  Okay Gracie, you're up.  Final pick.
Gracie:  I am going to tell you about how Narnia starts.  It is in "The Magician's Nephew."  It is a prequel.
Dad:  Who are the kids in this one?
Gracie:  Digory and Polly.  Digory's Uncle Andrew gives them rings and they can travel to different worlds.  First they went into a dead world called Charn.  Queen Jadis was the empress there.  They rang a bell and woke her up.  She grabbed them, and they traveled back to our world.  They had to get her out of our world because she was destroying everything.  But instead of bringing her back into Charn, they accidentally brought her to Narnia.
Dad:  What happened when they landed there.
Gracie:  There was no Narnia yet.  But they heard singing, and then they got to see Aslan make the world of Narnia.
Elijah:  Aslan makes things grow by singing.  He can do anything.
Isaac:  They even made a taffy tree.  Anything you planted in the ground would grow.
Dad:  What was your favorite part of the book, Gracie?
Gracie:  They go to a big garden and pick an apple of youth from the tree of life.  Digory's mother is sick back home, and he has to get the apple of life to cure her.
Dad:  So what's the verdict?  Are you glad we spent the summer reading these?
Elijah:  If there weren't books about Narnia, we wouldn't know anything about Narnia.  I hope I will go there someday.
Dad:  What would you do there?
Lily:  I would go find the creatures and make friends.
Elijah:  I would go to the place where I could turn into a dragon.
Dad:  You would want to be a dragon on purpose?
Elijah:  Yeah.  I could fly.  I actually want to be in the suit of a dragon.
Dad:  Who is your favorite character from the series?
Gracie:  Puddleglum.
Isaac:  Puddleglum.  He's funny.
Elijah:  Reepicheep and Puddleglum.  Reepicheep is a fighter, and he would be on my team so I could fight bad guys with him.
Dad:  Do you like the movie versions?
Isaac:  The movies are great, but the books are even better.
Dad:  Are you excited about the next movie coming up?  "Dawn Treader" is out soon.
Isaac:  We are so going to that!

Aslan breathing on the Mr. Tumnus statue, by Lily

Reepicheep and Caspian aboard the Dawn Treader, by Elijah

Jadis and Digory by the apple tree, by Gracie

Puddleglum and Prince Rilian fight the serpent, by Isaac

Update:  Check out the site 5 Minutes For Books for our review of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" movie!


Author: C. S. Lewis
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Published 1950-1956
Like them?  Here they are

Review #46: Where the Wild Things Are

Dad:  "Where the Wild Things Are" is probably one of the 3 most famous children's books ever made.
Isaac (age 11):  What are the other two famous ones?
Dad:  I've always thought the three best known are probably "Where the Wild Things Are," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," and "Goodnight Moon."  I would guess just about everyone, at least in this country, will have heard of those books even if they haven't read them.
Gracie (age 9):  What is "Goodnight Moon"?
Dad:  You don't know that one?  We have it.  There is a hole in your picture book knowledge!  Anyways... back to this book.  Do you know who made "Where the Wild Things Are"?
Gracie:  Nuh-uh.
Dad:  Maurice Sendak.
Gracie:  Who is she?
Dad:  A man.
Gracie:  Who is he?
Dad:  Uhhh... one of the most famous picture book makers ever.
Gracie:  Then why are we reviewing it if everybody already knows what this book is about?
Dad:  Well, people might like to know what you think about it.  I know what I think about this book.  And I've read what other grownups have had to say.  But I have no idea what you three guys think about it.
Lily (age 6):  I like it!  I like it!
Isaac:  Kids like this book.
Gracie:  Maybe there is someone who doesn't know about it, just like I didn't know about "Goodnight Moon."
Dad:  So tell us what happens.
Lily:  There's this boy that gets into a wolf suit.  Max.  And he says to his mom, "I'm going to gobble you up!"
Dad:  Did his mom think that was precious of him?
Lily:  No.  She said, "Go to your room without supper."
Gracie:  He's got a tall bed.
Isaac:  He does have a tall bed.
Lily:  And then his room turns into a wild place!  A forest.
Gracie:  His room becomes a world around him...  The world is in his room -- and it's really sweet.
Isaac:  Somehow this sailboat appeared, and he goes on this trip.  He went to an island and the wild things are there.
Lily:  They rolled their terrible eyes...  they showed their terrible claws...  they... did something... with there terrible teeth...  and they roared their terrible roars!  Mwoo haw haw!  Mwoo haw Haw HAW!
Isaac:  They were going to eat him, but he tamed them with a staring technique.
Gracie:  They make him their king.  And they have a wild rumpus.  And a monster runs into a tree.
Dad:  What else happens during the wild rumpus?
Isaac:  Crazy stuff.
Gracie:  Swinging.
Isaac:  Banging and jumping.
Gracie:  Having a parade.
Isaac:  Doing the conga.
Gracie:  After the wild rumpus stops, Max sends them to bed without supper.  But then he feels bad and wants to go home to his mommy.
Isaac:  He sailed away back to his room, and his supper was on the table.
Lily:  And it was still hot.
Dad:  Any votes on whether this all really happened to Max, or was he imagining?
Isaac:  It's really happening.
Gracie:  It's magical!
Lily:  No, it's his imagination.
Gracie:  It was not a dream.  How could it be?
Dad:  Look at this... what kind of moon is out when Max returns home?
Gracie:  Full moon.
Dad:  But what about when he left?
Gracie:  Not a full moon.
Dad:  So a lot of days went by.
Gracie:  Yeah, but his supper was still hot!
Dad:  Ahhh, so confusing.  So we don't really know.  There are clues that suggest it could be either way.
Gracie:  I think he went into a portal.
Dad:  Why do you think this book is so famous?
Gracie:  Because of the cool words.
Dad:  What did you think was cool about the writing?
Gracie:  It just sounded pretty.  Not pretty... it just sounded cool.
Dad:  I don't know if you guys looked at the words while I was reading.  But he doesn't use many periods.  All the sentences string together - they just keep going and going.  You guys would probably get in trouble in school for writing like that.
Lily:  I never make periods.
Dad:  Now if you forget to use periods, you can just say, "Maurice Sendak didn't always use periods!"
Gracie:  Hee hee!
Isaac:  We can get out of doing that extra work!
Dad:  What did we notice that happens to the borders around the pictures?
Isaac:  The pictures get bigger... and bigger... and bigger... until they touch the edge of the page.
Lily:  Then it gets over here onto the other page.
Gracie:  Max's world is getting bigger.
Lily:  And the leaves of the trees are poofing out of the picture.
Gracie:  When Max starts going towards the wild rumpus, the pictures get bigger and the borders shrink.  But when he goes away from the wild rumpus the borders get bigger and the pictures shrink.  So that's sneaky craftwork!
Dad:  I have two things I like most about this book.  I like how the borders around the pictures shrink and grow, and I like the design of the creatures.
Gracie:  I think Maurice Sendak had to be really creative to think of all those wild things.
Isaac:  I have a question...  He's half monster and half... duck?  Right?
Dad:  Who?
Isaac:  This dude.
Dad:  Ha ha ha...  He's whatever...  I don't know...  The monsters all look like bits and pieces of things.
Isaac:  Maybe he's half bear, half duck, half monster.  And his cousin twice removed is a dragon.
Lily:  That's a lion with horns.
Isaac:  Can I name all the monster guys?  This is Hairy....  Duckfeet....  Buffalo....  Parroty...  and Hornnose.
Dad:  What about that weird little goat man on the other page?
Isaac:  Joe.
(laughter)
Isaac:  What's wrong with "Joe"?
Gracie:  I get to name the sea serpent.  The sea serpent's name is Waterfull Nosetoot!
Lily:  I get to name this guy -- he's Bignose.
Gracie:  And this one's name is... "I-Walked-Into-A-Tree--Ouch"!
Lily:  There's a new guy!
Isaac:  No, that's Duckfeet.
Dad:  Isn't it weird that the monsters are all the same size except for that little goat guy?
Gracie:  I like Goat Dude.  He's awesome.  He's my favorite monster.
Lily:  Baaaa...  baaaaa...
Isaac:  They are cool monsters.
Lily:  My favorite thing about the book is the monsters.
Dad:  Would you like to meet those guys in real life?
Lily:  No way.  They would gobble me up!  Because I don't have Max's trick.
Dad:  You couldn't stare into the monsters' eyes?
Lily:  I would blink.
Dad:  Now in the book, Max's mother sends Max to bed without supper.  Later Max does the same thing to the monsters.  Why do you think that is?
Isaac:  Because he's the king.
Lily:  But it made him feel sad.
Dad:  Do you think moms and dads like having to discipline?
Isaac:  We can ask someone about this.  Dad, do you like disciplining us?
Dad:  It makes me sad when I have to do it.
Gracie:  Then don't do it anymore!
Dad:  But what would happen if we didn't ever discipline you?
Lily:  We would be selfish!  Mean!  Terrible!  A brat!  A monster!
Isaac:  I would be Duckfeet.
Lily:  I would be Bignose.
Gracie:  I would be "I-Walked-Into-A-Tree--Ouch."
Dad:  Max was pretty monstrous.
Gracie:  He made a mischief of one kind unto another.
Dad:  It's fine to be wild and silly from time to time.
Gracie:  Wild, yes.  Naughty, no.
Dad:  Wild at the right times.  Not all the time.
Lily:  If Max wasn't wild, the monsters were going to eat him.
Dad:  Does anyone want to say anything about the "Terrible Yellow Eyes" blog?
Isaac:  Oh!  Everyone should go there!
Gracie:  It's a blog where famous artists make their own versions of "Where the Wild Things Are" pictures.
Dad:  Including you three!
Isaac:  It has tons of art from different artists.
Dad:  It's kind of like what you guys have been doing for a whole year here at Bookie Woogie.  But you do a different book every week.
Gracie:  Oh my goodness!  They copied!
Dad:  Last thing... are you excited about seeing the movie?
Gracie:  Yes I am.
Dad:  How long did it take us to read the book?
Isaac:  Two minutes.
Dad:  How do you think they're going to make a movie out of a two minute picture book?
Isaac:  People have done it before.  The Iron Giant was a shorter book.
Gracie:  They'll just add stuff.  I'm excited to see "I-Walked-Into-A-Tree--Ouch."
Dad:  We'll have to see what the movie-people named the monsters.
Gracie:  What if they didn't name him "I-Walked-Into-A-Tree--Ouch"?
Isaac:  They're not going to name him that.
Gracie:  Oh no!

by Isaac

by Gracie

by Lily

Check out the site 5 Minutes For Books for our review of the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie!


Author/Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Published, 1963: Harper & Row
visit: the Terrible Yellow Eyes blog
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Review #12: Inkheart

Dad:  We just finished reading "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke over many, many weeks.  I didn't know if we'd make it before the movie came out, but we did.
Gracie (age 8):  This is a book about a book.
Isaac (age 10):  Yeah.  It's a book about a book named Inkheart.
Dad:  Where did the title "Inkheart" come from?
Gracie:  Because the character Capricorn had a heart as black as ink.
Lily (age 5):  Capricorn is an evil guy.  Woo-ha-ha-ha!
Dad:  There are lots of black things out there.  She could have called this "Night-heart," or "Coal-heart."  Why is "Ink" appropriate for this story?
Gracie:  Because the story is about "books" and "words."  And books are written in ink!
Lily:  Boots are also black.
Dad: (laughing)  "Boot-heart" -- because Capricorn's heart was as black as... boots!
Gracie:  Basta is another really, really bad guy who works for Capricorn, but I think Basta is even worse than his master Capricorn.  He's always threatening people.  He loves to play with his knife.
Dad:  But when we got to the end of the story, you told me that you "had feelings for Basta."  Why?
Gracie:  Because.  He's one of my favorite characters.  I don't know why, I just really like him.
Isaac:  I like Dustfinger and Farid.  And the marten, Gwin, which is a weasel-like thing...
Gracie:  And the marten had horns!
Lily:  Dustfinger could play with fire and eat fire and breathe fire.
Dad:  In the story, where did all those characters come from?
Gracie:  Well, Meggie is a girl, and she is probably the main star.  Meggie and her father Mo could actually read things out of books.
Lily:  Stuff came out!  People and animals and stuff came out of the books.
Gracie:  Mo read Basta, Capricorn, Dustfinger, and the marten Gwin into our world.  But for them to come out of the Inkheart book, four things from our world had to go in.  Unfortunately Meggie's mother went into the book.  So did two cats and some sort of bug.  After that, Mo kept trying and trying to read Meggie's mother back out of the book.
Dad:  The "Inkheart" book in this story was just invented, but there were some characters that came out of real stories too...
Gracie:  Tinkerbell came out of "Peter Pan!"  And the tin soldier came from the tin soldier story!
Dad:  The Steadfast Tin Soldier...
Gracie:  He was a weakling.
Lily:  I've never seen a real fairy.  Because they are not alive.  I want to have a pet though.  But all the pets we had died.  Like our goldfishes.  And our hamster.  Our hamster did not have horns like Gwin.
Isaac:  Farid is from the "Arabian Nights."
Lily: (singing to the tune of the Aladdin song)  "A-ra-bian Niiiiii-ights!"
Gracie:  Capricorn tries to make Meggie read the Shadow out of the book.  The Shadow is something made out of ashes.
Lily:  The Shadow is a shadow who has bright red stars for eyes.
Gracie:  Meggie is very brave.  When Elinor is trying to describe Meggie, she says "Look at your girl up there, as brave as... as..." but she couldn't think of anyone to compare because Meggie was so brave!  Braver than all the other heroes.  Plus most other heroes were men.
Isaac:  Not Wonder Woman.
Gracie:  But Meggie was even braver than Wonder Woman.
Isaac:  Meggie said that she wished that she was in a book and the person reading it would think the story was so horrible that they would just shut the book and then she'd be back at her house.
Dad:  And think about it -- she really was in a book, this book in our hands, but she didn't know!
Gracie:  Daddy, Daddy!  Read Meggie out of her book!
Dad:  Meggie didn't know she was in a book any more than Dustfinger knew he was in a book inside this book.  Maybe we are in a book too and just don't know it.
Isaac:  If someone stopped reading our story, we would just freeze.  Freeze!
Lily:  Like this.  (Lily freezes)
Gracie:  Then we would die of freezing.
Isaac:  We are kind of in a story...  God is our author.  And our illustrator is God too.  Because He made us and because He knows everything that is going to happen.
Gracie:  We are in His world.
Isaac:  And He came into our story.
Gracie:  He was riding on a donkey.
Isaac:  No.  He came as a baby.
Gracie:  Well, Mary was riding on the donkey.
Dad:  The Bible says Jesus is the "author and perfecter of our faith."
Gracie:  It actually says that?  What did He write?
Dad:  Well for one thing, according to that verse, He writes our faith.
Gracie:  That's cool.
Dad:  So what do you guys think about going into a story that you wrote?
Gracie:  Yeah!!!
Isaac:  No - Ahgghh!
Dad:  Why are you freaking out?
Isaac:  I don't want to meet "Flame" -- he's freaky.  And his men.  And the king-goblin-thing that likes tacos.  And all the skeleton guys.
Dad:  So, that's a story you've written that you wouldn't want to go into?
Isaac:  There are two or three of them I wouldn't want to go into...
Lily:  My story is called "Mae" -- there's a baby who turns into a monster.  I would not want to see that.
Gracie:  And actually, I don't want to meet Skullface either!  I wonder if Skullface knows he's in my story?
Dad:  Now, we liked what the story Inkheart was about, but we also really liked the way she told the story.
Isaac:  Yeah, the words... like: "Light seeped like milk running through the darkness."
Dad:  That was my favorite line: "Pale light seeped from Capricorn's village like milky water running into the night."  Do you remember any other cool phrases?
Isaac:  The one about the window...
Dad:  Yeah, from the very beginning.
Isaac:  The rain sounded like small... creatures or something... walking across the window...  What was it?
Dad:  "Rain fell that night... like tiny fingers tapping on the windowpane."  I can think of another one that made you guys laugh a lot...  What did she say Fenoglio's eyebrows were like?
Gracie:  Caterpillars!
Isaac:  Fuzzy caterpillars crawling above his eyes!
Dad:  Okay - so we all know this book is being turned into a movie, and it is coming out soon...
Gracie:  I want to watch it!
Isaac:  I want to compare the movie to the book.
Dad:  There will probably be some changes that they'll make.
Gracie:  There probably won't be caterpillars stuck to his head.
Lily:  I know!  I know!  The movie is different because they added a giant mole!
Dad:  Uhhhhh....  Hah! - that's a different movie.  You are thinking of "City of Ember."
Lily:  Oh.
Dad:  I don't think this movie is going to have a giant mole.  Do you have any guesses whether you will like the book or the movie better?
Lily:  Well... the movie has pictures, but the book doesn't.
Gracie:  I want to see what Basta looks like - he's my favorite character!
Lily:  Daddy, I'm imagining the Shadow right now.
Gracie:  In my mind, Capricorn looks like the guy on "Deal or No Deal," but with white eyes.
Dad:  Will it make it more exciting seeing the movie after we've read the book?  Usually if we go to a movie, we just plop down, watch a show, and then it's over.  Or is it more fun spending weeks and weeks reading this book, living in the story?
Isaac:  Live in it.
Lily:  The book.
Gracie:  We get to live in a book?
Dad:  Do you think this story would be too scary for anyone?
Gracie:  Too scary for little tiny babies who are scared of people with knives.
Dad:  How about you, Lily - you're five.  Is there anything in this book that was too scary for you?
Lily:  No.  I'm five and a half years old.  I'm brave.  If I saw the Shadow in real life the way I imagine it... I wouldn't be scared.
Dad:  Should we warn people about the violence?  Do you think there are parents that wouldn't like the violence for their kids?
Gracie:  If they don't like the word "Execution" then they shouldn't read it.
Mom: (piping in)  Oh goodness!
Dad:  The story talks about violent actions done in the past, and the story contains the threat of violence, but we don't see actual violent harm done while we are reading the story itself.  Still, parents should probably be aware of that.
Gracie:  If you don't like people with knives, don't read the parts about Basta.
Isaac:  Lily fell asleep about 16 different times at the ends of the chapters.
Dad:  Yeah, Lily slept through a lot of this book actually.  Or played through it.  So it didn't really hold a five-year-old's attention very much.
Lily:  That's because we read it at nighttime!
Mom:  I have the same problem...
Isaac:  That's because Mom is old.
Mom:  What!
Gracie:  Hee hee hee hee!

superstitious Basta, by Gracie

Dustfinger teaching Farid fire tricks, by Gracie

Gwin the horned marten, by Isaac

Mo and Dustfinger behind the olive tree, hiding from Basta, Flatnose, and the hunting dogs, by Lily

the Shadow, by Lily

Update:  The managing editor of the "5 Minutes for Books" blog invited us to share our thoughts on the movie over at their site.  It's a great site that I've visited often.  Click here to read the Z-Kids' review of Inkheat the Movie!

Author: Cornelia Funke
Published, 2003: Chicken House
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