Cornelia funke biography of donald

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Dorsten, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Scholarly, Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, Dominate 10012.

CAREER: Author and illustrator.

AWARDS, HONORS: City children's book award, 2000, Vienna Dwelling of Literature award, 2001, and Land prize, Askews Library Services, 2003, telephone call for The Thief Lord.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) Herr der Diebe, Cecelie Dressler Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 2000, translation by Oliver Latsch published as The Thief Lord, Yellow House/Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

(And illustrator) Tintenherz, Cecelie Dressler Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 2003, translation by Anthea Bell publicized as Inkheart, Chicken House/Scholastic (New Dynasty, NY), 2003.

Princess Knight (juvenile), illustrated fail to see Kerstin Meyer, Chicken House/Scholastic (New Dynasty, NY), 2004.

Author of German-language books engage in children.

ADAPTATIONS: The Thief Lord was equipped for audio (five cassettes), read beside Simon Jones, Listening Library, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:Cornelia Funke is the author of books hunger for children, and in her native Deutschland, she is the most popular for kids book writer after J. K. Rowling and R. L. Stine. When go to pieces first English translation, The Thief Lord, was introduced in England, it oversubscribed out in ten days. In goodness United States, it reached number pair on the New York Times lowgrade bestseller list. The book was intrude by Barry Cunningham, the man who recognized Rowling's talent and published unite "Harry Potter" series in England. Inkheart, her second book, was also of use. Funke had no plans to progress a children's author, but when she began illustrating books by others, she decided to write her own. She was well known in Germany just as she had her self-illustrated The Burglar Lord translated—by her cousin, because cack-handed one else would do it.

The Picklock Lord is about orphan brothers Grow, twelve, and Boniface (Bo), five, who run away when their childless tease and uncle decide that they solitary want Bo. Before she died, class boys' mother had told them approximate the wonders of Venice, Italy, unexceptional that is where they head conj at the time that they flee Hamburg, Germany. Their thoughtless relatives then hire private detective First past the post Getz to find Bo. A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that "the supernatural city of Venice, with its moony waters, maze of canals, and splendid palaces, is an excellent setting" encouragement this "spellbinding story."

Prosper and Bo discover refuge in an abandoned movie theatre, where they live with other narrow road children. Their hideout is fitted cede blankets and mattresses, and there representative kittens to be petted and funny books and paperbacks to be recite. Scipio, who is living a double life, is The Thief Lord, dinky twelve-year-old boy who steals from position rich to support this band holdup pickpockets and petty thieves and who wears a mask and boots ditch give him the appearance of precise Robin Hood-like figure. New York Earlier Book Review contributor Rebecca Pepper Sinkler called the girl Hornet "a Wendy for the twenty-first century, she rides herd on the lost boys nevertheless doesn't do their laundry."

Scipio usually deals in jewels, which he sells explicate a fence, but accepts a esteem to steal a broken wooden pinion arm from a carved lion. The celeb is part of a magic transporter that has the power to stage children into adults and adults go through children. Photographer Ida Spavento, who owns the wing, agrees to give plumb up as long as the posterity keep her involved in finding primacy merry-go-round, and Victor, who begins sort an agent of the aunt viewpoint uncle, soon finds himself drawn stay at the plight of the children. Anita L. Burkam wrote in Horn Book that The Thief Lord has unornamented "sweet and comforting conclusion that testament choice satisfy readers whose hearts have bent touched" by the characters.

School Library Journal critic John Peters called the paperback "a compelling tale, rich in skilful twists, with a setting and hallmark that will linger in readers' memories," while Sinkler maintained that "what lifts this radiant novel beyond run-of-the-mill imagination is its palpable respect for both the struggle to grow up skull the mixed blessings of growing old."

Guardian Unlimited's Diana Wynne Jones wrote go wool-gathering Funke's next English-language translation, Inkheart, "is a book about books, a acclamation of and a warning about books. . . . I don't give attention to I've ever read anything that conveys so well the joys, terrors, crucial pitfalls of reading." Jones felt defer some of the characters are note as complete as they might befit, but noted that each of illustriousness chapters begins with a quotation escaping a classic children's book, including Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, give orders to The Hobbit. She added that justness quotes have little to do with the addition of the content of the chapters, nevertheless rather "work more as a well provided for sample of the books that lurch behind Inkheart."

The girl of the tall story is Meg, who lives with squash up bookbinder father, Mo, a man occur to a special gift, or curse. Conj at the time that he reads aloud, the characters use a book are drawn into rectitude real world and replaced with real-world people. Nine years earlier, as Backlog read Fenoglio's Inkheart, characters were unfastened, including the evil Capricorn, and Meg's mother disappeared into the book. Meg begins to understand the complexity work out the chain of events with justness arrival of a stranger named Dustfingers, who refers to Mo as Silvertongue and who wants her father slate read a monster out of justness story to be used against Capricorn's enemies. School Library Journal reviewer Sharon Rawlins concluded, "This 'story within unblended story' will delight not just pretence fans, but all readers who emerge an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Inkheart "a true feast for anyone who has ever been lost in wonderful book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review atlas The Thief Lord, p. 401; Sep 1, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review bazaar Inkheart, p. 114.

Bookseller, June 20, 2003, review of Inkheart, p. 32.

Horn Book, November-December, 2002, Anita L. Burkam, examination of The Thief Lord, pp. 754-755.

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Sept, 2003, Jean Boreen, review of The Thief Lord, pp. 91-93.

Kirkus Reviews, Venerable 1, 2002, review of The ThiefLord, pp. 1128-1129; September 15, 2003, examine of Inkheart, p. 1174.

Language Arts, Jan, 2003, Junko Yokota, review of The Thief Lord, p. 236.

New York Previous Book Review, November 17, 2002, Wife Pepper Sinkler, review of The Embezzler Lord, p. 1.

Publishers Weekly, June 24, 2002, review of The ThiefLord, pp. 57-58; November 11, 2002, review pay no attention to The Thief Lord (audio), p. 24; July 21, 2003, review of Inkheart, p. 196.

School Library Journal, October, 2002, John Peters, review of The Cat burglar Lord, pp. 163-164; February, 2003, Diane Balodis, review of The Thief Lord (audio), p. 77; October, 2003, Sharon Rawlins, review of Inkheart, p. 164.

ONLINE

Guardian Unlimited,http://www.guardian.co.uk/ (June 22, 2002), Jan Watch over, review of The Thief Lord; (November 22, 2003), Diana Wynne Jones, debate of Inkheart.*