A Review By Frances Smith

Cornelia Funke is a wonderful children’s author whose work links the modern world seamlessly with the world of fairy tales. In “Reckless”, there is a fantasy world behind the mirror (Alice in Wonderland), Ogres, dragons elves and dwarves (Lord of the Rings) good and bad witches and fairies (The Wizard of OZ) and a world which owes much to CS Lewis.  There is also a sleeping Princess, a gingerbread house and references to many other traditional fairy tales.  From this rich mixture, Cornelia Funke weaves her own, completely original fairytale.

 Jacob has been entering a parallel world through a mirror for many years, in search of his father. He has always left behind his younger brother, Will and their mother, neither of whom know of the mirror’s mysterious properties.  After his mother’s death, Will finds the mirror and follows Jacob through into the dangerous parallel world.  He brings with him his girlfriend Clara, a medical student.  Will unfortunately falls into a magical trap, from which the people of the mirror kingdom are convinced there is no escape.  Jacob has other ideas and leads Will, Clara and Fox (who has never been to our world) on a dangerous quest to find the fairy who can release Will from the spell.  It is a race against time through the strange fantasy world of monsters and magic, with the emphasis on the redeeming virtues of trust, friendship and love sustaining our heroes in the face of duplicity and evil.

 I could not put this book down and would recommend it to all lovers of fantasy and magic from Harry Potter to the Lord of the rings and, of course, Inkheart.