JEFFREY BROWN: “The world is dark and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.”
So begins “The Tale of Despereaux,” a 270-page fable for children with illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering, that tells of a big-eared little mouse named Despereaux who falls hard for a princess, escapes some nasty rats in a dark dungeon, and goes on a dangerous and ultimately successful quest to save his love. “The Tale of Despereaux” is the 2004 winner of the Newberry Medal, given by the American Library Association for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”
The author is 39-year-old Kate DiCamillo, who grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis. “Despereaux” is her third novel for children. Kate DiCamillo, congratulations, and welcome.
KATE DICAMILLO: Thank you, and thank you.
JEFFREY BROWN: So this is the adventures of a very unlikely hero: a mouse who falls in love with a princess. He loves music, he loves tales of knights. What made you write this story?
KATE DICAMILLO: My best friend’s son, about three years ago — he was 8 years old — asked me for the story of an unlikely hero. And I told him at the time that I didn’t do stories on command. And he said, “But this is a story that you’ll want to tell. It’s about this unlikely hero, and he’s got,” he said, “exceptionally large ears.” He’s a very precocious kid. And I said, “That’s all nice, but I don’t think that I’m the one to do it.” And he said, “It’s a wonderful story. You have to write it down.” And I said, “What happens in the story?” And he said, “I don’t know, but when you write it down, then we’ll find out.” And so…
JEFFREY BROWN: That’s your job, huh?
KATE DICAMILLO: Yeah, that’s my job. He’s got a clear division of labor there, you know. And so, I still didn’t think I could do anything with it, but when I got back home, the phrase “unlikely hero” just kind of stuck in my head. And I started doodling, and it’s not a big leap from an unlikely hero with large ears to get to a mouse.
JEFFREY BROWN: What is it about mice and children’s literature? My own son is reading “The Red Wall” series — so many mice characters. So, why?
KATE DICAMILLO: Why? I think that children can readily identify with something so small and defenseless and that the rest of the world considers unimportant. I think that kids feel powerless, and what’s more powerless than a mouse? And so, I think kids kind of exist on the outside of the adult world. And so, I think they can identify with rodents. I don’t know, I can.
JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, in addition to all the kind of light that you have in this story, there’s a lot of darkness.
KATE DICAMILLO: There is.
JEFFREY BROWN: There are parents who aren’t all that nice. There are kids left alone, even beaten.
KATE DICAMILLO: Right.
JEFFREY BROWN: There’s the prison.
KATE DICAMILLO: Right, there’s a lot of darkness in the world. And I think it’s a disservice to think that kids don’t know that the world is full of all kinds of dangers and dark things. They know. And for adults to tell them that the world is only sweetness and light when the kids can see something entirely different in front of them is — that’s kind of ridiculous. So I want stories — I wanted stories, as a kid, that dealt with the world the way I saw it, which was tragic and wonderful, light and dark.
JEFFREY BROWN: A balance of the two?
KATE DICAMILLO: Yeah.
JEFFREY BROWN: I read that the author you were reading at the time or who most influenced you for this book was Charles Dickens?
KATE DICAMILLO: I read Dickens the whole time I was working on this. I went back and read all of my favorites — “A Tale of Two Cities,” in particular. Dickens has a wonderful saying: “Make them laugh, make them cry, but most of all, make them wait.”
JEFFREY BROWN: “Make them wait” means?
KATE DICAMILLO: Make them wait: You want them to keep on reading, and you want them to be on the edge of their seats. And so, I went back for my own pleasure, and, also, to figure out how he did that. And so, that was — the book is very much like a fairy tale, but it owes a lot, I think, to all the Dickens that I was reading at the time, too.
JEFFREY BROWN: One of the techniques that you use is to speak directly to the reader.
KATE DICAMILLO: A very old technique.
JEFFREY BROWN: The narrator says, “Reader, listen to me now,” or, “Let me tell you,” or, “Have you ever thought about this, reader?” Why do that?
KATE DICAMILLO: Why do that? I don’t know. You’re overestimating me if you think that I’m doing things consciously, because I’m not. I’m just trying to get the story down on paper. I never know what I’m doing. But I think, in retrospect, I can say that because it was such a different kind of story for me to tell. I was considered a southern storyteller, and here I am in a totally different world with a totally different kind of story. I think that that narrator popped up because I was talking myself through the telling of the tale. I was afraid in the telling, and the narrator, this all-knowing voice, calmed me to have it on the paper, and I think that’s why it showed it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Why don’t you read a little bit, so we can get the flavor. This is when the mouse Despereaux meets the princess.
KATE DICAMILLO: Yes, a pivotal moment in the book. I’m going to read it to you, Jeffrey. Listen up, okay?
“The Princess Pea looked down at Despereaux. She smiled at him. And while her father played another song, a song about the deep purple falling over sleepy garden walls, the princess reached out and touched the top of the mouse’s head.
“Despereaux stared up at her in wonder. The Pea, he decided, looked just like the picture of the fair maiden in the book in the library. The princess smiled at Despereaux again, and this time, Despereaux smiled back. And then, something incredible happened. The mouse fell in love.
“Reader, you may ask this question. In fact, you must ask this question. Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea? The answer is, yes, of course it’s ridiculous. Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful and powerful. And Despereaux’s love for the Princess Pea would prove in time to be all of these things: Powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.”
JEFFREY BROWN: Powerful, wonderful, ridiculous. And then, reader, read on to find out what happens.
KATE DICAMILLO: Yeah, yeah, please do, yeah. I hope that you do.
JEFFREY BROWN: Something that I wonder about, because I see my own children changing so quickly year to year.
KATE DICAMILLO: Yeah.
JEFFREY BROWN: An 8-year-old is so different from a 10-year-old, so different from a 12-year-old. When you’re writing for children, how do you pitch it? To what age? Who’s the reader you’re writing for?
KATE DICAMILLO: I don’t pitch it. I just — the reader that I’m writing for is me. And so, I tell the story that I need to tell, and, hopefully, that’s for the marketing department to say who I’ve written it for. I just tell the story that I’m supposed to tell. I couldn’t possibly sit down and write to somebody, because that would be like trying to write to the market, and you can’t do that. I can only tell whatever it is that I’m given to tell, and then other people will make the decision about who it’s for, I guess.
JEFFREY BROWN: But you’ve written three books now for young readers and they’ve all been quite successful.
KATE DICAMILLO: Good fortune.
JEFFREY BROWN: Is there a key, though, that you’ve come up with for how to reach young people?
KATE DICAMILLO: I put my heart on the page when I tell them the story. That’s the only thing I know how to do. I don’t know if that’s the key, but that’s what I do. That’s what I hope to keep on doing.
JEFFREY BROWN: Okay, “The Tale of Despereaux,” Kate DiCamillo. Again, congratulations.
What made you decide to become a writer? I think from reading. My favorite authors became my heroes, and I wanted to be like them.
How do get the ideas for all the silly things that go on at Wayside School? I sit at my desk and I just try to think. It may be because the life of a writer is somewhat boring, sitting alone in a room, in front of a computer screen. It forces my mind to come up with crazy ideas.
Would you ever like to write a scary book? I think it would be fun to write a scary book. I may write one someday.
Who are your favorite characters from your books? I’ve got a lot of favorite characters. It’s interesting because when I write and work on a book for a year or so, the characters become very real to me. Some of my favorite characters are Bradley from There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, Angeline from Someday Angeline and Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, Kate Barlow from Holes, and Louis from the Wayside School (he’s based on me).
Are the things that happen in your books things that happened to you? No, but I try to draw on the feelings I had as a child, or those that I still have, and capture those same feelings in the characters in my books, but under different circumstances.
Since smoking is bad for you, why do some of the characters in Johnny’s in the Basement try it? When I was growing up, kids were very curious about cigarettes. We knew they were bad for us, but they didn’t have the same sort of stigma as they have today. And so, kids would often experiment and try them. So, Donald experiments and tries cigarettes, as do Donny and Valerie. But they’re awful. It wasn’t meant to encourage kids, but to discourage them from trying cigarettes.
Have you ever considered writing a sequel to There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom? I have considered it, and I may write one someday.
Is Mrs. Gorf, the teacher at Wayside School, a real person from your past? My third grade teacher. No, actually, I wrote the first Mrs. Gorf story as an assignment in a creative writing class in high school. And my teacher didn’t like it. In fact, she thought I hadn’t taken the assignment seriously. But I always thought it was a good story. When I worked at the elementary school in college, the kids liked it. And that’s what made me think I might be a writer, or write longer stories.
If the Wayside School is falling down, why is D. J. is always so happy? The Wayside School isn’t really falling down. And D. J. just has a really happy personality.
What is your favorite thing about writing? I think it’s a tremendous feeling of accomplishment that I get from starting with nothing, and somehow creating a whole story and setting and characters.
What’s the worst part about writing? Most days, it just feels like I’m not accomplishing much. I write for about two hours a day, and most of it just seems like a waste of time. It amazes me how after a year, all those wasted days somehow add up to something. Another thing I don’t like is that it’s a very solitary profession. I think it would be nice sometimes to go to an office and see people every day, instead of just sitting in my room.
After many years, does writing sometimes seem like just an ordinary job? Well, it’s not fun when I can’t figure out what to write. Usually, when I finish the book, I look back and think it was fun to write, but while I’m writing it, it’s not really fun at all.
What kind of books do you enjoy reading the most? I like to read different kinds of books. It mostly depends on the authors. When I find an author I like, I usually read everything that author has written.
Were you ever troubled by a bully when you were in school? Not really. Maybe a few minor instances, but for the most part, no.
Were you a daydreamer as a kid? I imagine I daydreamed quite a bit. I still do.
Do you have hobbies? I’m an avid bridge player. I play duplicate bridge in tournaments all around the country. I like to ski in winter and take my dogs for long walks.
Are you working on a new book now? I never tell anyone about what I’m working on. Not even my wife or daughter! I do that for self-motivation more than anything else. By not allowing myself to talk about it, it forces me to write it.
Did you like writing stories when you were a kid? It was okay. When my teacher assigned stories, I think I enjoyed writing them, but it wasn’t something I did on my own.
Do you go to schools to find characters for your stories? No, not now. When I was in college in 1976, I got college credit for helping out at a nearby elementary school. I got to know the kids in the class really well, and that’s what led to the kids in Wayside School. But now I can no longer visit a school like that. When I go to schools now, I’m treated like a celebrity. And it’s different.
Do you ever get ideas for your books from your dreams? No. I wish it were that easy!
What would you tell a young person who wants to be a writer? Read, find out what you like to read, and try to figure out what it is about it that makes you like it. And you have to rewrite. My first draft of anything I write is really awful.
What was your hardest grade when you were in school? I had a really mean fifth grade teacher. She just seemed to pick on me. So that was a difficult year. Academically, my hardest grade was my first year of law school.
What dreams do you have for the future? I just hope to be able to write another book that excites me as much as Holes did. And I’m hoping to do well in my next bridge tournament!
Of all the books you’ve written, which is your favorite? Holes. It was the greatest challenge to write, and I feel like I met that challenge.
What character was the hardest to create? It’s hard to remember. I know I had problems in Holes, developing the minor characters and trying to distinguish one from the other.
What question do you get most often from kids? Many students want to know where my ideas come from. And that’s the hardest to answer because it’s a mystery to me!
If you could recommend only one of your books, which one would it be? It would depend on the age of the person, I suppose. But I think Holes is my best bookÑmy most well written book.
How do you think up such imaginative titles for your books? The title is usually the last thing I think of. Although the whole time I’m writing the book, I’m trying to think of what I’ll call it. But I discovered how important titles were with the success of There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. Prior to that book, I hadn’t been that successful. And that title got people to notice. I’m not always sure about the title—I didn’t think Holes was a very good title. The other title that I considered (and that my daughter wanted me to use) was Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Kid.
Which children’s book authors are your favorites? Katherine Paterson, Lois Lowry, Avi, William Sleader, and Walter Dean Myers.
Do you ever get writer’s block? I get writer’s block a lot. Usually I just try to get through it—to write anything, because I know I’m going to do four or five drafts of a book. So, maybe the next time I get to this point, I’ll have a better idea of what to do. So, I just do anything just to get through it.
Do you enjoy traveling? Where do you like to go the most? I enjoy skiing every year. We usually go to Colorado every year for a week. I like going to the beach, California usually. And we always try to leave Texas in the summer to go someplace cooler.
How did you think up the problems in Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School? They were fun for me to make up. I like doing puzzles of all kinds. It was a real puzzle to make up those problemsÑas hard as they are to solve, they’re even harder to make up.
Have any of your books been published in other countries and other languages? Yes. Holes has been published in Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands. It’s going to be published in about 20 countries, including Korea, Israel, China, and Turkey. There’s a Boy in the GirlsÕ Bathroom has been published in Japan and it’s going to be published in Italy. And the Marvin Redpost books have been published in Germany, and the Italian publisher wants to do that one as well. It’s fun for me to get these books published in different languages, even though I can’t read them!
What accomplishments in your life are you most proud of? I’m proud of each and every one of my books. I think that nothing else comes close to that.
If you could say anything to your readers, what would it be? I’m glad they like my books! It was in those early days when I was struggling to make a living and didn’t know whether to be a writer or lawyer that the fan mail from my readers kept me going.
ON WRITING
What process do you go through in arriving at a final draft? I usually begin a novel with just a little idea, perhaps no more than a character trait. That idea will lead to another until it snowballs into a full-blown story. Since I do not plan or outline beforehand, I normally don’t know what’s going to happen next. I go through several drafts. The first draft is very unorganized, often with ideas at the end that are inconsistent with those at the beginning. In the second draft, I organize it better because I now have a pretty firm grasp of who the characters are and what is going to happen to them. By the time I get to the last rewrite (which may be the fifth or sixth pass), I try to convince myself that the story is all true, and that I am simply telling it, not making it up. After numerous rough drafts, I send the final copy to the publisher, but that’s still not the absolute final copy. I then work with an editor, and I may do some more rewrites.
With each draft, the story changes and the ideas are transformed. I may initially have a real clear vision for different parts of a book. I know how I’m going to handle this problem. I know what I’m going to do here. And then I kind of get lost. What amazes me is that most days feel useless. I don’t seem to accomplish anything—just a few pages, most of which don’t seem very good. Yet, when I put all those wasted days together, I somehow end up with a book of which I’m very proud. Somehow I’ve now written eighteen books. I’m always amazed when I finish a book and realize, hey, this actually is what I set out to do.
What were your favorite authors as a child and which influenced you the most? I think as a child, my favorite author was E. B. White (Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web). I think he was a big influence on the way I write. But most of my favorite writers who influenced me are those I read in high school. Those include J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, William Saroyan, and E. L. Doctorow.
How do you create the characters in your books, and how do you think up their names? Well, the books and the characters and stories and settings all develop together. I start with a small idea—small piece of a character or setting, and as I write, all aspects of a story develop from there. Names are always a little difficult. Right before my daughter was born, my wife and I got a book called 10,000 Baby Names, and I still look through that book when I look for names. The kids of Wayside School are all named after kids in an elementary school where I worked while going to college. And then the nicknames in Holes were just fun names to think of. Although, I came up with the name Stanley Yelnats (Holes) because I didn’t feel like figuring out a last name. So, I just spelled his last name backwards and figured I’d change it later. But I never did.
What role do real kids play in giving you your ideas? I get a lot of fan letters, and I visit schools fairly often, all of which helps me to keep in touch with kids somewhat, but to tell you the truth, this contact is mostly superficial. I don’t really get to know these kids, as I once did when I worked as a grammar school teacher’s aide. Many of my ideas come from what I remember doing, feeling, and thinking as a child. Also, I was married in 1985, and my daughter was born in 1987. I get some ideas from her. The boy in The Boy Who Lost His Face has a one-year-old sister, and my daughter was one at the time. When she was four, I wrote the Marvin Redpost books and Marvin’s four-year-old sister was based on her. The central themes of the Marvin Redpost series flow from children’s fantasies. For instance, the main character believes he was kidnapped at birth or becomes convinced he’s really a prince. I try to write plots that revolve around things that most kids have thought about at one time or another.
When you write, do you seek feedback and opinions from others? No. I never talk about a book until I’m finished writing it. And, I like to be alone when I write. It took me a year and a half to write Holes, and nobody knew anything about it, not even my wife or my daughter. I think that is helpful for writing, as well as for anything else that takes a lot of self-motivation. The more you talk about something, the less you tend to do it. By not permitting myself to talk about Holes, I was forced to write it. The story was growing inside me for a year and a half, and I had no other way to let it out. I write mostly for myself. I can never imagine my readers. I just try to write books that I would enjoy reading. I figure if I like them, the kids will too.
Do your books have a moral? Yes, in the sense of thinking about right and wrong. But mainly my books are written to make reading enjoyable. That’s my first goal with all my books, to make reading fun. I want kids to think that reading can be just as much fun, or more so, than TV or video games or whatever else they do. I think any other kind of message or moral that I might teach is secondary to first just enjoying the book. But, I don’t mean to say that fun is necessarily frivolous. If a book is well written, communicating a moral can also be fun. People like it when the good guy wins and when good triumphs over evil.
Did you ever get discouraged when you were starting out? My first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School was not distributed well when it first appeared in 1978. The book was difficult for parents and teachers to find. It never sold very many copies, but I got lots of fan letters that greatly encouraged me. Still, even though I was uplifted by the attention, supporting myself as a writer still looked like a rough proposition at the time.
What is the difference between writing for children and writing for adults? I don’t really believe that writing for children is very different from writing for adults. What makes good children’s books is putting the same care and effort into them as I would if I were writing for adults. I donÕt write anything—put anything in my books that I’d be embarrassed to put in an adult book. The literary world often places children’s literature below adult literature. But looking back through the ages, the really classic childrenÕs books have all had beautifully developed plot, structure, and characterization.
I’ve always believed that I learned to write for children by reading books written for adults. For instance, Kurt Vonnegut’s Hocus Pocus and William Goldman’s The Princess Bride influenced the way I wrote Holes. I liked the way the opening chapters of these books were sort of short and jumpy, and how they led into the story. And The Princess Bride had these colorful characters and this bizarre setting, and that’s sort of like Holes.
Is there a big difference in your approach when you write for children versus writing for young adults? I write the books and let the market find who reads it.
When did you choose to write for children rather than for adults? Well, it was when I was going to school in Berkeley. For one class, I signed up to be a teacher’s aide at a local elementary school. I just did it because it sounded easy—no homework, no tests, just help out at a school. But I had a great time. I loved all the kids. Before long, leaving the heavy world of the Berkeley campus to go to Hillside Elementary became my favorite thing to do everyday. And so I thought IÕd try writing a children’s book.
Will you ever write books for adults? Or are you fully dedicated to writing for kids? I may write for adults. I actually started an adult book, worked on it for about two years, and then decided it just wasn’t coming together for me. At that point, I decided to go back to children’s books, and almost immediately I started Holes, and it just seemed to take off on me.
For years Cornelia Funke has been one of the best-known and bestselling children’s authors in Germany. In fact, many people have called her the German J. K. Rowling. Americans, however, were not exposed to Funke’s work until 2002, when her book Herr der Diebe was translated into English and released by Scholastic Press as The Thief Lord. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Like their German counterparts, young American readers gobbled up the fantastic tale of two orphans set loose among the canals and streets of Venice, Italy. The book made every major bestseller list and won countless awards. It also established Funke as a storyteller on an international scale, since the book has since been published in nearly forty countries. In October of 2003 Funke released her second book in the United States, Inkheart. Publisher’s Weekly called it “delectably transfixing,” and readers were left clamoring for more of their favorite new author.
Illustrator becomes author
Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in Dorsten, Westphalia, located in the central region of Germany. Funke, who spoke with Sue Corbett of the Miami Herald, explained that her last name is pronounced FOON-kah. She also mentioned that in the United States “people say ‘Funky,’ and I rather like that.” Funke did not set out to be a writer. When she was eighteen years old she left Dorsten to study at the University of Hamburg, where she earned a degree in education theory. Not sure what to do after graduation, Funke decided to take a course in book illustration at the Hamburg State College of Design.
Funke started out designing board games and illustrating books for other authors. After illustrating for several years, however, she began to lose interest in her job. “I was, I have to admit, bored by the stories I had to illustrate,” Funke explained in a Bookwrap video interview online. Instead, she wanted to draw pictures for books that were exciting, books about dragons and adventure. She recalled that one night, at the age of twenty-eight, she started to write her own story. The illustrator-turned-author did not suffer the usual trials of first-time writers. She sent her manuscript out to four German publishing houses and all four wanted to publish it.
“If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids. A library book, I imagine, is a happy book.”
Funke’s earliest books, most of which she illustrated herself, were short and aimed at younger readers of about eight years old. Her first longer, chapter book for older children was Drachenreiter (Dragonrider), published in Germany in 1997. It was followed in 2000 by Herr der Diebe (The Thief Lord). The book was a phenomenal success in Germany, but Funke was not satisfied. She was determined to take a shot at the English-language market, where she knew her stories would have a chance to be read by a wider audience. Funke turned to her cousin, Oliver Latsch, and asked him to translate Herrder Diebe into English. With manuscript in hand, she made the rounds of the top English publishers.
Thief Lord steals the hearts of millions
Several companies showed an interest, but at the same time the fates were actively at work at The Chicken House, a new book publisher in England. The Chicken House was founded in 2000 by Barry Cunningham, who had a long career in publishing and was known for taking chances on new writers. In fact, it was Cunningham who first decided to publish the Harry Potter series after British author J. K. Rowling (c. 1966–) was turned down by countless other publishers. In this case, Funke did not go to Cunningham. Cunningham went looking for her, after he received a letter from an eleven-year-old girl in England named Clara, asking why her favorite author (Cornelia Funke) was not published in English. Clara was bilingual, she spoke both German and English, so she had been enjoying Funke’s books for several years.
Cornelia Funke’s Favorite Books
In many of her interviews, writer Cornelia Funke describes herself as a passionate reader. And, as she revealed in an AudioFile interview, one of her goals as an author is to “try to awaken the passion for reading in children and adults.” In Inkheart, one way Funke accomplishes this goal is by introducing her audience to classic works of fiction. Each chapter begins with a quote from a book, and there are references to books such as The Wind in the Willows by Scottish author Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) sprinkled throughout the text. In an article posted on the Guardian Unlimited Web site, Funke revealed her own “favourite bedtime stories,” many of which are mentioned in Inkheart.
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
The BFG by Roald Dahl.
What Witch by Eva Ibbotson.
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.
Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende.
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren.
The War of the Buttons by Louis Peraud.
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
Cunningham tracked down Funke’s agent, read the manuscript, and immediately bought the English-language rights for Herr der Diebe and for Drachenreiter. In July of 2000 The Thief Lord was published in England. It sold out in just ten days, an unheard-of phenomenon for a children’s book. Two years later Funke’s story debuted in the United States. Critics heaped praise on The Thief Lord, calling it an immediate classic. Readers agreed, and the book reached the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained comfortably perched for twenty-five weeks. The Thief Lord was named a best book of the year by many publications, including School Library Journal and Parenting Magazine. It also won a slew of awards, including the prestigious Mildred L. Batchelder Award, which is presented annually by the American Library Association to the best book originally published in a foreign language and then translated and published in the United States.
Part Peter Pan and part Robin Hood and Oliver Twist, The Thief Lord is set against the backdrop of Venice, Italy. Rebecca Sinkler of the New York Times called the book a “love song to the city and its splendors.” In fact, Venice is one of Funke’s favorite destinations, and she was inspired to write the story during one of her many visits. “I wanted to tell children that there is a place in this world that is real and full of history, but also contains magic and mystery,” she explained to Trudy Wyss in an interview on the Borders Books Web site. The many alleyways and canals of Venice were perfect for the story because, as Funke told Wyss, “there are hundreds of hiding places.”
At the story’s center are two orphans, twelve-year-old Prosper and his five-year-old brother, Bo, who run away from Hamburg to Venice because their aunt and uncle want to separate them. When they arrive in the strange city, they are taken in by a band of young pickpockets and thieves who are led by Scipio, the thirteen-year-old masked Thief Lord. The boys live comfortably enough with their new-found friends in an abandoned movie theater until they discover they are being tracked by an investigator hired by their aunt and uncle. They also run into trouble when the gang is hired to steal a wooden horse’s wing that long ago was broken off a magical carousel. The carousel has the power to make “adults out of children and children out of adults.”
Written from the heart
Readers were spellbound by the many twists and turns in the plot of The Thief Lord, and Funke left her audience wanting more. They were rewarded in October of 2003 when Scholastic Press, her American
publisher, released Inkheart. There is a gleam in Funke’s eye when she talks about this book, which she believes to be one of her best efforts. As she explained in the Bookwrap video, she put the “blood of her heart” into writing it: “There are those people who love books and are greedy for books and the rustling of paper and the printed letter and I wanted to write about this. This lust for the printed word. And I think Inkheart is all about that. The enchantment that comes from books.”
Good authors make books come alive for their readers. In Inkheart, twelve-year-old Meggie loves books so much that she regularly falls asleep with them. Her father, Mo, teases her, saying, “I’m sure it must be very comfortable sleeping with a hard, rectangular thing like that under your head.” But Meggie enjoys taking her books to bed because the books whisper their stories to her at night. Books are also important to her father, who earns his living by traveling across the country repairing and caring for old volumes. He does not, however, read to his daughter because of a secret power he possesses: if Mo reads a book aloud, its characters leave the pages and enter the real world. Mo discovered his gift several years earlier, when he released characters from the book Inkheart. One of them, named Capricorn, is so evil that his heart is said to be made of ink. Capricorn hunts down Mo because he wants to destroy Inkheart, ensuring that he will never return to its pages.
The success of Inkheart followed that of The Thief Lord. The book debuted at number nine on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list into 2004. It also received rave reviews. Publisher’sWeekly enthused that “readers will be captivated by the chilling and thrilling world [Funke] has created.” James Neal Webb of BookPage went so far as to call it “a magical, life-altering volume.”
Funke on film
To promote her books, in November of 2003 Funke left Hamburg and her children, Anna and Ben, and went on a U.S. book tour. (The character of Bo in The Thief Lord was based on Ben.) She was interviewed on television and radio and visited many bookstores across the United States. In her Bookwrap video interview Funke commented about the American children she met on tour, and how open and curious they were. “It was great fun to meet them,” she said. “I was especially enchanted by the book maniacs in America. I didn’t know there was so many here…. And I have to confess this kind of book passion I have only met in America.”
Funke revealed to the Miami Herald that there are two sequels planned for Inkheart. The second in the series, called Inkblood, has already been written and is being translated from the German, with an expected release date of 2005. In addition, there are movies in the works based on The Thief Lord and on the Inkheart trilogy. Once her books hit the big screen, Funke, already a beloved writer, will no doubt become a writing phenomenon. And there is also no doubt that there are many more books to come from her pen. As she told Wyss, “Writing is my passion…. I couldn’t live without it.”
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