BOOKS: "Inkheart" & "Inkspell"

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duskyjewel

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Would any of you NOT allow your kids to read these books?

I have a 9 year old who is a SERIOUS bibliophile (her word!) and who wants these books. I have read some things about them, but have not read the books theselves. She has read the entire Harry Potter series, all of Narnia, and all of Little House on her own, among many others. She is very mature and distinguishes between fantasy and reality with no trouble.

So, what do you think? I think they sound fine, but I read Harry Potter before I gave it to her because of all the controversy. (Well, except #7… she was lying in wait for the mail carrier all day on the release day as we ordered it from Amazon. She stayed up all of one night and read that sucker in a day and a half!)
 
duskyjewel said:
Would any of you NOT allow your kids to read these books?

I have a 9 year old who is a SERIOUS bibliophile (her word!) and who wants these books. I have read some things about them, but have not read the books theselves. She has read the entire Harry Potter series, all of Narnia, and all of Little House on her own, among many others. She is very mature and distinguishes between fantasy and reality with no trouble.

So, what do you think? I think they sound fine, but I read Harry Potter before I gave it to her because of all the controversy. (Well, except #7… she was lying in wait for the mail carrier all day on the release day as we ordered it from Amazon. She stayed up all of one night and read that sucker in a day and a half!)
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I haven’t hear of these, but speaking as a fellow serious bibliophile (starting at about her age) has she ever read the “Dragons” series by Patricia C. Wrede (Searching For Dragons, Calling On Dragons, can’t remember the other title)?

They are fantasy, but rather more substantive than most of the genre (there’s quite a bit of courage, perseverance, common sense, value of education, etc., in them.) The heroine, Princess Cimorene, is student of Latin, fencing, cleanliness, and makes excellent desserts:thumbsup:.

There are tons of good books for kids her age & I have more recommendations, but my tastes ran more towards historical fiction than fantasy…
 
I was a bibliophile even earlier than your daughter and have remained one all of my life. My mother had a series entitled the Collier’s Junior Classics which she had read when she was a child back in the 30s. She gave them to me at 8 (second grade) when I was already reading at a sixth grade level. Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. Brothers Grimm. Illiad/Odyssey. King Arthur etc. (Lots of dark themes too). Never affected me. Kids are perfectly able to differentiate fantasy from reality. We read The Hobbit as a bed time story to our sons back in the mid-80s. They are now in their mid-20s and every bit as much bibliophile as their mother and me.

Congrats on making your child a reader.
 
peregrinator_it said:
There are tons of good books for kids her age & I have more recommendations, but my tastes ran more towards historical fiction than fantasy…
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Please, recommend away! I would love to steer her toward valuable reading. 🙂 She enjoys other genres besides fantasy…
 
duskyjewel said:
Please, recommend away!
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That’s music to my ears!

Some of these books are “standard” and she may have read them already & some are out of print and may be hard to find, but:

-Caddie Woodlawn, Baby Island, The Pink Motel and almost anything else by Carol Ryrie Brink-- the first is my all time favorite!

-I would imagine she’s already read The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but if not…

-The All-Of-A-Kind-Family books (by Sydney Taylor) are great too

-I looooved The Jungle Book and also Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Toomai of the Elephants (all Rudyard Kipling) at her age

-Anything by Elizabeth George Speare is worth a read, but especially The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Sign of the Beaver. (I recently read The Bronze Bow and I adore it too, but it wouldn’t have made much sense to me at 9; however, when she’s older…)

-I liked all the “Shoes” books by Noel Streatfield, but there’s another title by her, The Magic Summer, which is on a whole level up from them and is just awesome, but hard to find.

-Don’t forget Mary Poppins and Doctor Doolittle!

-The Good Master by Kate Seredy is also a lovely book, some kids find it a little slow, though

-Rumer Godden wrote some fabulous children’s stories-Miss Happiness & Miss Flower and Little Plum- but they may be difficult to find.

-I second The Hobbit. It’s one of the first “chapter books” I remember reading, but is a great read-aloud too.

-Bunnicula is a hysterical quick read

-Similarly Ben and Me by Robert Lawson

-I love anything by Sid Fleischman

-What put the idea into my head, I can’t recall, but I got it into my head in 4th grade (when I was 9) that I would read The Prince and the Pauper for a book report-- solely because my version was 400! pages long. It was work, sometimes, but I really enjoyed it; however, I realize I may have been an oddball in that regard.

Sorry I didn’t give much about contents of each of these, but I’m running off to choir rehearsal. I wish I could be 9 again like your daughter and have all these books still ahead of me!

Kudos to you- her love of reading will be a great advantage to her in life!
 
I wish y’all could see our house. There are books all over the place. I would not be surprised to see that the count of books is well over 20,000. We made it a point each Christmas to get each son a book which not only had a good story but also had great artwork. There are such wonderful books for kids out there which include great stories and great art.

We were fortunate that we had a dear friend who owned a bookstore (before the evil giant came and put him out of business). There are beautiful books out there with beautiful stories for kids. Stories from other cultures.

Dusky: Here’s a whole series which I read and which is appropriate for your child:

amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-4597647-4425400?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lloyd+alexander

Hen Wen the magical pig. Disney’s cartoon movie did not do justice to this series.
 
Thank you! I also have a 7 year old son who is a dragon freak (if I hear “Dragonology” one more time…), so I am sure these titles will be read to shreds! I have to replace all our Potter paperbacks as we have all (me, DH, and my two oldest children) literally read the covers off them! 😃

Maybe I am just wierd, but I don’t get people who don’t read. I think a lot of it is that they were not exposed to books they could love. Once you find one that you truly love, you seek out others… thanks again!
 
I am hoping to hear from other parents who have actually read the books also. My DD brought the 2nd book home from the library this weekend (not knowing that there was a first book). I also saw that it is being made into a movie with Helen Mirren set to be released sometime this year. It looks pretty good and harmless but it is a long book and I just don’t have time to read it myself first. :o
 
Brendan Fraser plays the dad… yum. I’ll go see that!😛
 
well, I’m not a parent, but i am a 22 year old adult that has readthe first book and most of the sequel.
Loved them both. Nothing offensive in the least about either. They might be a little scary for younger readers, but your daughter sounds mature, so I think she can handle it.
Another book your daughter might like is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but that might be a bit too hard to read for a young girl. It’s written in the style of Jane austen and Charles Dickens. Very good book though.
 
child_of_God85 said:
Another book your daughter might like is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but that might be a bit too hard to read for a young girl. It’s written in the style of Jane austen and Charles Dickens. Very good book though.
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I read about the first quarter of this book and couldn’t get any further. I would not recommend it for any child. DW and oldest son (26) loved it.
 
They are fine. My daughter has read them both and I have skimmed them. The plot is really convaluted, there is magic, and fantsy elements, but nothing I found exceptional. Since you allow Harry Potter (which we did too, but the kids were just not too interested), these will be fine.
 
My 12 year old son likes these as well, but I haven’t read them myself. I would love to preview all the books he reads, but there is no way. He is such a reader, and I just don’t have the time. I was just like him as a child, and I couldn’t understand why my mother took soooo looong to finish a book. LOL. I get it now.

I would also recommend, for your daughter:

The Redwall Series
The Shadow Children Series (I just finished this myself. It’s about a time in the future when no one is allowed to have more than two children because of a famine in the land. The stories are about illegal third children and how they have to live in the shadows, always hiding from the Government, etc – kind of scary, but very good)
Beverly Cleary
Series of Unfortunate Events

That’s all I can think of now, although there are more. Have fun!
 
brotherhrolf said:
I read about the first quarter of this book and couldn’t get any further. I would not recommend it for any child. DW and oldest son (26) loved it.
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I guess most children would have a hard time with it. The first books I ever read were classics, so I’ve been raised on books like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I was reading Dickens and Austen when I was 8, so hard books are no problem for me.

another series that is really good (and educational in a strange way) is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Very funny books.
 
I have the same “problem” that some of you have - kids that read and read! I have a hard time keeping up with them.

Someone on this forum suggested “A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind” by Michael O’Brien. I bought it and read it - I am VERY careful of what I let my kids read. This book is really good - and also has a HUGE recommended reading list included. Our library is very small so we try to scout out used book stores whenever we’re out of town…
 
Michael O’Brien himself has some terrific novels, more for older teens and adults. But I found this book of his a little too strict. Then again, Tolkien was no fan of Narnia, so good minds can differ. Brian Jacques of the Redwall and other series is great. Especially if you can get the books on tape he recorded (he has a great voice). That was how we were first introduced to him.

My kids and I also loved the Dave Barry/Ridley Pearson stories. The latter writes thrillers for adults, so watch out for these, but his kids books are fun.
 
I have not read these books. My daughter says Cornelia Funke is the best author and she has been awaiting the movie for three years. While not infallible, my daughter does try to look for anti-Catholicism, poor attitudes, or dangerous ideologies in books, and she sees none in these.

I have watched the movie Thief Lord, which is based on a book by this same author. I love the movie and so would assume the author’s other work is acceptable. 🙂 The Thief Lord movie is very well produced and acted, and ultimately is about an older brother’s love for his younger brother but set in a modern day, robin hood-like storyline.
 
One of my children read the books and loved them. We also got them on audio. The girl who is the main charcacter loves to read and there is much travel between our world and the world of the written word ( the book Inkheart). Characters sometimes can travel between the two and that causes the “problem” of the story. From what I remember, there was nothing wrong with the stories.
Code: 
 I know it is time consuming to monitor the reading material but lucky you to have such avid readers in your family.  I am one myself but none of my seven children are as much one as me yet.   I keep trying.   

 BYW:   If anyone can suggest modern fiction suitable for a middle school age girl  PLEASE let me know.  The junk she comes home with.....well you can imagine.
 
jeannie822 said:
One of my children read the books and loved them. We also got them on audio. The girl who is the main charcacter loves to read and there is much travel between our world and the world of the written word ( the book Inkheart). Characters sometimes can travel between the two and that causes the “problem” of the story. From what I remember, there was nothing wrong with the stories.
Code: 
 I know it is time consuming to monitor the reading material but lucky you to have such avid readers in your family.  I am one myself but none of my seven children are as much one as me yet.   I keep trying.   

 BYW:   If anyone can suggest modern fiction suitable for a middle school age girl  PLEASE let me know.  The junk she comes home with.....well you can imagine.
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How old is your daughter. When i was younger my mom got me started on the Great Illustrated classics series. Their shortened versions of classics for younger reads. They started my love for the full version classics.
another series that is very good is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Very funny books, and nothing offensive. I as an adult love them.
 
child_of_God85 said:
How old is your daughter. When i was younger my mom got me started on the Great Illustrated classics series. Their shortened versions of classics for younger reads. They started my love for the full version classics.
another series that is very good is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Very funny books, and nothing offensive. I as an adult love them.
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Thanks for the ideas. My daughter just turned 12; she also is the youngest. We do have some of the Great Illustrated Classics that she does not read. Right now she is into the Princess Diaries books and I cannot find anything too bad with them. She also “reads” something called TTYL which is a book about friends and it is strictly their IM’s to each other. I call it (and 99% of kid’s TV, “brain rot”). She goes to public schools and they have all this in their libraries. For now I am relieved she brings it home so I know what interests her.

I do read aloud to her. Now we are making our way through The Chronicles of Prydain. She enjoys it and it the best way I know for now to keep her interested in anything classic. So I was just wondering if there are any books appropriate for 12 year olds that are modern in their setting, plot and characters and still solid morally. Thanks–probably should start a thread for this one.

.
 
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