Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

 

Earlier this morning, I just finished reading Inkling by Kenneth Oppel. This fantasy novel is about the experiences of a boy, Ethan, and his family after an ink blot comes to life and escapes from his dad's sketchbook one night. When Ethan meets this creature, he decides to call him Inkling. Although Inkling absorbed the ink from Ethan's math textbook and the beginning of his group's graphic novel project, Ethan decides to befriend Inkling and asks him to help with his project. Inkling also meets Ethan's sister who likes when he behaves like a dog that she names Lucy. Additionally, Ethan's dad has been stuck ever since Ethan and Sarah's mom passed away, so Ethan asks Inkling to help inspire his dad to write another graphic novel. When Ethan brings Inkling to school one day to give him a vacation from drawing, a classmate kidnaps Inkling and Ethan must come up with a plan to rescue him.

Inkling was such a funny and entertaining novel. It was full of daring escapes and had a lot of heart. Before reading, I wasn't expecting the book to deal with grief, but I found that it added an emotional element to the story. I loved the friendship between Ethan and Inkling, and it was obvious that taking good care of Inkling was important to Ethan. I enjoyed Inkling's love for a wide variety of books because I'm also a voracious reader. On the other hand, for much of the book, I hated Ethan's classmate, Vika, because she always seemed to be up to no good and was nosy about Ethan's secret when he started showing progress on his group's graphic novel project. I don't want to reveal too much, but it turned out she wasn't the story's biggest antagonist. The end is slightly bittersweet, but it seems to leave open the possibility of a sequel. Overall, Inkling is a terrific book for anyone who wants to read a magical and heartwarming story.