Previous SFF Author: Gregory Funaro
(1958- )
Cornelia Funke writes for children. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California, in a house full of books. Visit her website. Here’s the Inkheart movie website.
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
One thing I love about summer vacation is that my 12 year old daughter Tali and I have time to read together. Our first book for the summer was Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord which, as Tali was thrilled to learn, takes place in Venice, a city she visited a couple of summers ago with my parents.
The story is about Boniface (Bo) and his big brother Prosper(o). Their parents are dead and their aunt wants to adopt only Bo because he’s cute and sweet.
Kat Hooper and Jason Golomb´s rating: 4 | Cornelia Funke | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The premise of Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, that some have the ability to call out characters from books by reading aloud, is absolutely wonderful. At first, of course, one thinks how great to have such a talent — to call out Bilbo or Willy Wonka or Aladdin, but what if you couldn’t then return them to their homes — how tragic and cruel for them. Or even worse, what if you couldn’t control your talent, so reading aloud Lord of the Rings might mean you’d get to talk to a hobbit or an elf,
Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Cornelia Funke | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I have to admit that I’ve found Cornelia Funke’s works for the most part to be wonderful concepts whose execution never quite matched their potential. Dragonrider I thought was her most successful work so far, mostly because it didn’t reach quite so high. With Inkspell, however, Funke has finally meshed concept and execution together perfectly, creating her best piece of work so far.
Inkspell picks up about a year after the events of Inkheart,
Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Cornelia Funke | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Dragon Rider is an early Cornelia Funke novel brought to the U.S. after the success of hermore recent The Thief Lord and Inkheart. Dragon Rider begins with a young dragon named Firedrake who starts off on a quest for the Rim of Heaven, a possibly mythical land where Firedrake and his fellow dragons hope to flee to in order to escape encroaching mankind whose earth-moving machines are on their way.
Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Cornelia Funke | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke
After finishing The Thief Lord, my daughter and I wanted to read more Cornelia Funke (pronounced “FOONK-ah”) so we picked up Igraine the Brave, a short novel that we listened to in audio format.
Igraine is a 12 year old girl who lives in a castle complete with a moat, drawbridge, stone lions and gargoyles, and lots of spiders (Igraine hates spiders). Her parents are famous magicians and her older brother is training with them.
Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Cornelia Funke | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ruffleclaw is a chapter book (114 pages) recently written and illustrated by Cornelia Funke, the German author and artist whose books (e.g., Inkheart, The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider) are loved by children and adults around the world. Ruffleclaw is translated into English by Oliver Latsch. I listened to the audio version which is read by the author and is just over 1.5 hours long.
Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Cornelia Funke | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Gregory Funaro
The black, white and blue is VERY striking, and carries the sense of a night sky and mystery.
Thanks, Kat, great input!
Marion, thanks for the audiobook article! Interestingly, they list All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Here's part of my review…
And, oh...as to that 2.5-star rating: I think I gave Damon Knight's "Beyond the Barrier" a similar halfhearted rating earlier…
And speaking of mixed, that's how the book left me...mixed! As in MIXED UP!