I read to my children a lot. Every night if I can. And while it’s one of my favorite things to do with them–especially now that my older two have embraced the magic of being read aloud to–I’m not often truly captivated by what I read them. Sure I enjoy it. We laugh and imagine and re-read passages. But something extraordinary happened with our newest read aloud: I’ve been cheating, reading ahead while they’re gone or busy with other things. I can’t stop reading. I want to know what happens. I think about the book while I’m doing other tasks. On one hand this isn’t uncommon, I’m a huge fan of middle grade and young adult fiction. But on the other it hasn’t happened in such a long time, especially with a book for this age range, that I’ve completely fallen in love.

I’d heard about INKHEART by Cornelia Funke for a long time but missed the initial craze since my boys were so young when it was getting a lot of press. The first book in the trilogy came out the year my oldest son was born and we were more into Sandra Boynton at the time (Farmyard Dance, anyone?). But I picked up a copy over a year ago when I took said son on his birthday date to the bookstore. And there it sat, on the shelf in our living room, until two weeks ago.

They beg me to keep reading every night but I stop after two chapters. Some books need to be savored and this is one of them.

One cruel night, Meggie’s father reads aloud from Inkheart, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of the book, landing in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie’s in the middle of the kind of adventure she thought only took place in fairy tales. Somehow she must master the magic that has conjured up this nightmare. Can she change the course of the story that has changed her life forever?

Why I love this book:

• The writing is briliant–flat out amazing.
• My boys don’t want to stop reading. They bring it to me at the oddest times and ask for just one more chapter.
• Not once have my children complained that the main character is a girl.
• Meggie’s father is a book binder and her world is filled with the magic of books. A reverence for the written word leaks from every page.
• There is mystery and adventure and magic. Fire eaters and little horned animals. Books that come to life when you read them aloud. Literally.
• I have NO idea how it’s going to end.
• Meggie is smart and literate and everything I would want my daughter to be, if I had one. As it stands I pray my boys will marry a girl like Meggie one day.

If you’ve not read this book go get a copy. Either for yourself or for your children. It doesn’t matter. But read it. And then come back to tell me how much you adored it.

About Ariel Lawhon

Ariel Lawhon is the co-founder of She Reads, novelist, blogger, storyteller, and life-long reader. She lives in Texas with her husband and four young sons (aka The Wild Rumpus). Ariel believes that Story is the shortest distance to the human heart.

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Photo credit Universal Studios

I recently took a group of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders through a ten-month creative writing course in which they learned to plot and write a short story. Along with their weekly writing assignments they also had to read two Newbery Award winning novels: The Westing Game and The Tale of Despereaux. I read, and loved, The Westing Game as a tween. But I did not discover Kate DiCamillo until a few years ago. In my opinion, she is the most talented children’s writer alive today. One day I’d love to thank her in person for the impact The Tale of Despereaux had on my students and on my children. It is a breath-taking novel.

This semester, as I gave reading assignments to my students, I read those same chapters to my boys at home. There were times that I stopped in the middle of a passage and marveled DiCamillo’s ability to capture the magic of reading in so few words:

Despereaux looked down at the book, and something remarkable happened. The marks on the pages, the “squiggles” as Merlot referred to them, arranged themselves into shapes. The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once Upon A Time.

It is no surprise that The Tale of Despereaux was adapted into an animated film in 2008. And I have nothing against the movie. It’s actually quite lovely. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the book. And on the last day of class, I watched the film with my students. But I told them the same thing that I told my children when I let them watch the movie for the first time. “Listen to the film score,” I said. “And marvel at the digital animation. Enjoy every moment of this film. But remember it wouldn’t exist if a writer hadn’t found the courage to tell her story.”

Question: what are you reading to the child in your life?

About Ariel Lawhon

Ariel Lawhon is the co-founder of She Reads, novelist, blogger, storyteller, and life-long reader. She lives in Texas with her husband and four young sons (aka The Wild Rumpus). Ariel believes that Story is the shortest distance to the human heart.

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