Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Here I go again. I am going to tell you about another writer of whom I am a huge fan. I have read all of her books. Now, before you get your pen and paper out to write down her name or skip on over to Book Depository – she is a children’s writer (and young adult, I guess). I have said before that I usually get just as much value out of a good (stress good) kids book as I do a book written for adults. The story lines are just as complicated and the morals and values of the characters are just as much in question as in any ‘adult’ book. Funke writes fantasy books and usually I am not a fantasy reader but I will read her books.

Cornelia Funke wrote the Ink Heart Series and Dragon Rider. Her best as far as I am concerned was The Thief Lord. Reckless is great. There are a few gaps in the narrative and bits of time just pass by without a mention or explanation. It was a little confusing at times but I can forgive that – it might have been in the translation.

It is fast paced, romantic without the ‘gooshy stuff’, ticks all the fantasy/magic boxes and has a hero most people can identify with. The story is original and unpredictable. The characters are well drawn and easy to imagine.

Chicken House is her publisher. I love Chicken House. Their web site is www.doublecluck.com (how cute is that?). They publish Blue Balliett and Trenton Lee Stewart just to mention two. If you want to find a decent book for your child (or you) to read next just go to their web site.

My only problem with Reckless is that it reads like a movie script. I still enjoyed it but why not just write a movie script? Why turn it into a novel? If I am wrong, I am sorry, but it even felt like those blank spaces I mentioned before were scene changes – fade outs and ins.

With special effects so good these days Reckless will make a great movie – up there with Avatar if they do it right. Maybe this is the way with YA fiction. It needs to read like a movie to keep a kid’s attention. The visual is so much more, not important, but prevalent, today. Anyone can make a little animated flick and stick it on YouTube. Special effects software is easy to buy. (We used to draw 20 successive pictures on the edges of a book and flip them to make a stick running man and think we were very clever!). Movies from popular books are almost a given today. Popularity of comic books and graphic novels is on the rise. You don’t believe me? Go into any comic book store. They are as busy, or more, as any Borders!

On my internal movie screen I can just see the stone skin of the Goyl – beautiful, the butterflies of the witches – stunning, the morphing of Fox, the palace, the wedding, the unicorn grave yard – it’s all right there. Right now I wish I was a movie maker. Someone call Peter Jackson!