Inkheart Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of Inkheart.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

About This Books

Mortimer is a bookbinder and has passed on his great love of books to his daughter Meggie, but he has never read aloud to her. When a stranger named Dustfinger appears at their home, Meggie's world turns upside down. She soon learns some startling truths — about her mother's disappearance nine years earlier, and the mysterious book called Inkheart that her father tries desperately to hide at the book-filled home of Elinor, Meggie's great aunt.  She learns that the reason Mo has never read aloud to her is because he has a secret, mysterious, dangerous gift — when he reads aloud, objects and characters come out of the books — a skill he discovered when Capricorn, the dark villain of Inkheart, came into the world when Meggie was three. Teresa, Meggie's mother, disappeared at the same time, presumably into the story.

Capricorn uses Dustfinger, who is another character from the story, to lure Mo and Meggie to his hideout village; there Meggie sees a demonstration of her father's reading skill when he brings gold treasure out of Treasure Island and a young Arab boy out of the Arabian Nights. When Dustfinger learns Capricorn's true plans, he helps Mo, Meggie, and Elinor escape over the hills. Mo searches out Fenoglio, the author of the book, and together they devise a plan to foil Capricorn's terrible schemes. But Meggie is recaptured along with Fenoglio, and Capricorn discovers that she, too, has the same magical gift.  In a rousing finish, Fenoglio and Meggie find a way to foil Capricorn's plans — with surprising results.


Discussion Points

Characters

1. Why does Mo keep his ability a secret from Meggie? Why has he never told her the truth about her mother?
   


2. Why doesn't Dustfinger read the ending of the story when he has the chance in Meggie's bedroom? What stops him?
   


3. Does Elinor like books more than people? Has she truly been happy living alone with all her books? How does Elinor change in the course of the story, and what causes her to change?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Scholastic. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.