Inkheart

Inkheart (2003) by Cornelia Funke. Twelve-year-old Meggie finds her world shaken when her father, Mortimer, takes her on a journey to try to conceal a book that is in his possession. It seems that he can make characters from the book come to life merely by reading it aloud -- and some of the characters he conjures are very unpleasant, indeed.

Turns out that this is the first book in a trilogy aimed at the youth market, and it's not bad. There is plenty here to entertain the young fantasy fan, and just enough so that the reader will probably want to read the sequel, "Inkspell." Grade: For children, A-

The Ruins

The Ruins (2006) by Scott Smith. Tourists encounter unspeakable terror when they veer from the beaten path into the jungles of Mexico. Smith, the author of "A Simple Plan," lands with a dull thud in this, his second book. Although "The Ruins" was picked as the No. 2 book of the year by "Entertainment Weekly" magazine, I found it curiously disappointing. It starts out with a compelling setup, but seemed to kind of fizzle out near the end. Grade: B-

The Thin Place

The Thin Place (2006) by Kathryn Davis. In the small New England town of Varennes, a twelve-year-old brings the dead back to life, and we can hear the thoughts of animals. Highly praised elsewhere, this novel didn't do much for me. This may be due to some shortcoming on my part, as the book seemed to be written on some higher, poetic plane. I didn't get it. Grade: B