Best Books About Family-Friendly Fantasy by Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Funke is one of the most beloved fantasy writers in the world - the German author whose books have been translated into dozens of languages and read by millions of children and adults. She is sometimes called “the German J. K. Rowling,” but the comparison sells her short: Funke’s imagination is entirely her own, full of ink and dragons and the magic of stories themselves. And her writing is, for the most part, wonderfully clean: no profanity, no graphic content, nothing that would make a parent hesitate. The darkness in Funke is moral - the cost of ambition, the danger of stories - rather than graphic, and her books can be shared with readers of almost any age.

Funke’s books are not all equally well known, and they reward discovery. If you are new to her - or if you have read Inkheart and want to know what else she wrote - this guide will take you through her best work, organized by what each book offers.

The Essential Start: Inkheart#

Inkheart (2003)#

The best possible introduction to Funke, and one of the most original fantasy novels ever written: Meggie’s father, Mo, has a gift - when he reads aloud, he can bring the characters of a book into the real world. Years ago, reading Inkheart, he accidentally brought out the villain Capricorn and lost his wife inside the book. Now Capricorn has found them, and Meggie must enter the world of the book to save her family.

It is the essential Funke for every age: a book about books, about the power of stories, about reading as magic. It is warm, thrilling, and full of the love of literature that made Funke famous. If you read only one Funke book, this is the one.

Inkheart, and Why It Endures#

The book’s genius is its premise: reading is magic. Mo’s gift - bringing stories to life by reading them aloud - is the book’s argument made literal: that stories have power, that the characters we love are real in the ways that matter, and that reading is not a passive act but a kind of creation. The book is also a family story - Meggie and Mo, bound by the gift and the loss it caused - and it is an argument about love and sacrifice that has never gone out of style.

The Inkworld Trilogy: The Series Around Inkheart#

Inkheart is the first book of a trilogy - the Inkworld - and the other two books are essential reading for anyone who loved the first.

Inkspell (2005)#

The second book: Meggie is drawn into the Inkworld itself - the world of the book her father read from - and the book is about her life inside the story, and the danger of the world she has entered. It is darker and more complex than the first book, and it is the essential read for readers who loved the world of Inkheart and want to live inside it.

Inkdeath (2007)#

The final book: Meggie’s father must become the Bluejay, the outlaw hero of the Inkworld, to save the people he has come to love - and the book is about the cost of becoming a character in someone else’s story. It is the darkest of the trilogy, and it is the essential read for the series’ conclusion.

If You Loved the Dragons: The Dragon Rider and Beyond#

Funke’s other great love, after books, is dragons - and her dragon novel is one of her most beloved. These are the essential reads for the dragons.

Dragon Rider (1997)#

A gentle, warm adventure: a young dragon, the last of his kind, sets out with a boy named Ben and a brownie named Sorrel to find the Rim of Heaven - a safe haven for dragons. It is Funke’s most accessible book, perfect for younger readers, and it is the essential read for the dragons at their gentlest.

Dragon Rider, and the Quest for Home#

The book is a quest story in the classic mold - a journey across the world, a series of adventures, a safe haven at the end - and it is an argument about home: that it is not always a place, that the people you travel with become your home, and that the last dragon deserves a place to belong. It is the gentlest of Funke’s books, and it is the essential read for families with younger readers.

If You Loved the Ghosts: The Reckless Series#

Funke’s other great series is the Reckless books - darker, stranger, and written for older readers. These are the essential reads for the series.

Reckless (2010)#

Jacob Reckless has spent years traveling through the mirror - a passage into a world of fairy tales, darker and older than the stories we know. When his brother Will follows him and is cursed, Jacob must journey through the fairy-tale world to save him. It is the essential start to the series: the mirror, the world beyond, and Funke’s fairy tales with the sweetness removed.

Fearless (2013)#

The second Reckless book: Jacob continues his adventures in the fairy-tale world, seeking the crossbow that can shoot through anything. It is the essential read for the series’ darker adventures.

The Golden Yarn (2016)#

The third Reckless book: Jacob’s search for a golden yarn that can mend the broken. It is the essential read for the series’ conclusion, and it brings the fairy-tale world’s story full circle.

If You Loved the Books-About-Books: Funke’s Love of Stories#

Funke is the great writer of books-about-books - her deepest subject is the power of stories, and her best books are arguments about reading itself. These are the essential reads for the theme.

Inkheart, and the Power of Reading#

The Inkworld trilogy is the essential argument about reading: that stories are alive, that they change us, that the characters we love are real in the ways that matter. The book is also full of actual books - Meggie’s father’s love of reading, the books that appear throughout - and it is a love letter to the whole act of reading aloud.

The Thief Lord (2000)#

Funke’s first international success: two brothers, running away from their aunt in Venice, join a gang of orphans living in an abandoned cinema, led by a mysterious boy called the Thief Lord. The book is an adventure and a mystery and a fairy tale at once, and its Venice - with its canals and its hidden places - is one of the great settings in children’s literature. It is the essential read for readers who want Funke’s warmth in a different register.

The Book Thief Connection#

Readers who loved Inkheart’s love of books will find a powerful companion in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief - a very different book, but one that shares the conviction that stories can save us. It is the essential read for the theme at its most serious.

If You Loved the Fairy Tales: Funke’s Darker Stories#

Funke’s fairy tales are the old stories with the sweetness removed - darker, stranger, and more honest than the versions we know. These are the essential reads for the fairy tales.

Reckless, and the Fairy Tales Without the Sweetness#

The Reckless series is Funke’s argument about fairy tales: the world beyond the mirror is the world of the old stories, where the forests are dangerous and the happy endings are not guaranteed. It is the essential read for readers who want the fairy tales at their most honest.

The Curse of the Jade Ring (2017)#

A standalone adventure set in the world of the Reckless books: a young apprentice in the fairy-tale world, and a curse that must be broken. It is the essential read for more of the world.

If You Loved the Villains: Funke’s Great Antagonists#

Funke writes some of the great villains in children’s literature - Capricorn and the Shadow in the Inkworld, the magicians of the fairy-tale world - and her villains are never cartoonish: they are terrifying because they are real. These are the essential reads for the villains.

Inkheart, and the Villain Capricorn#

Capricorn is one of the great fantasy villains: the character who was read out of a book and into the real world, with all the ruthlessness of the story he came from. The book is an argument about evil: that it is not mysterious but banal - the desire for power, the willingness to use people - and that it can be fought with the same tools that created it: stories.

The Thief Lord, and the Detective#

The villain of The Thief Lord is a detective - a man hunting the boys, with his own reasons - and the book is an argument about the people we assume are enemies. It is the essential read for the villains who are more than they seem.

If You Loved the Magic: Funke’s Inventions#

Funke’s magic is never generic: every book has its own rules, its own inventions, its own strange logic. These are the essential reads for the magic.

Inkheart, and the Magic of Reading#

The Inkworld’s magic is the most original in children’s literature: the power to bring stories to life by reading them aloud. The magic has rules and costs - reading someone out of a book means reading something else in - and the series is an argument about the price of creation. It is the essential read for the magic.

The Thief Lord, and the Magic of Venice#

The magic of The Thief Lord is subtler: the magic of the city itself, of the hidden places and the old stories, of the ending that takes a turn into the genuinely magical. It is the essential read for the magic at its gentlest.

Building Your Own Shelf: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path through Funke’s best work:

• Start with Inkheart for the essential introduction.
• Move through the Inkworld: Inkspell and Inkdeath.
• Try Dragon Rider for the gentlest adventure.
• Pick up The Thief Lord for the Venice story.
• End with Reckless when you are ready for the darker fairy tales.

For more books in this spirit, our clean books for teens themes and values guide explains what makes these stories work, and our books without explicit content themes and values guide extends the shelf into stories that are rich without being graphic. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another story to enter.

A Note on Funke’s Life and Legacy#

The books are richer when you know the life behind them. Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in the German town of Dorsten, and she worked first as a social worker and then as an illustrator of children’s books before turning to writing. She has said that she became a writer because she wanted to create the worlds she loved to draw, and her books carry that visual imagination - the Venice of The Thief Lord, the Inkworld, the fairy-tale landscape of Reckless are all rendered with a painter’s eye. Inkheart made her famous around the world, and she became the first German author to break into the bestseller lists in English; she later moved to California, and her books are now read in more than fifty languages. She has called herself “a storyteller in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm,” and the description is exact: her fairy tales are the old stories, dark and strange and beautiful, told with a modern warmth. She is one of the great living writers of children’s fantasy, and her books reward discovery at any age.

Why Funke Endures#

Cornelia Funke is one of the most beloved fantasy writers in the world, and the reason is simple: she writes about the two things she loves most - books and dragons - with a warmth and an imagination that have never gone out of style. Her books are arguments about the power of stories: that reading is magic, that the characters we love are real, that a story can save a life. They are clean in the truest sense - pure of heart, full of light - and they can be shared with readers of almost any age. Meggie and her father, the young dragon and Ben, the orphans of Venice: they are all waiting on the shelf, and the Inkworld is open for anyone who wants to step inside.