The Ink Drinker - Hardcover

Sanvoisin, Eric; Matje, Martin; Moroz, Georges

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385325916 ISBN 13: 9780385325912

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

Book lovers everywhere will adore this twist on an old tale:

This young boy cannot think of a worse way to spend his summer: he has to help his Dad out with his bookstore, and he absolutely hates to read!  His job is to watch the store for shoplifters, but things take a twisted turn when he spies a pale character who seems to float through the aisles of the store.

But this stranger is not trying to steal books--he is drinking the words out of them with a straw!  So the boy goes on a chase to find out what this fellow is all about and they both wind up in a cemetery, where the boy discovers a taste for something much more filling than ink!

About this title

Review

What if your Dad loved books, owned a bookstore, and even called his cherished volumes "my little bookies"? You would probably despise books--just like the young protagonist in Eric Sanvoisin and illustrator Martin Matje's deliciously bizarre story The Ink Drinker. One summer vacation, while the boy is working in the store and hoping shoplifters will ease his burden, he spots a weird, pale stranger drinking a book. With a straw. As soon as the ink drinker flees (at the sound of the boy's gasp), the young spy locates the customer's book and discovers that it is completely blank except for a letter or two! Like a real detective, he races out of the store on the heels of this tough customer... all the way to the cemetery... all the way into a vaulted monument shaped like an ink bottle... all the way to a pen-shaped casket where the man (or beast?) lies snoring. As the book-vampire's mysteries unfold like a good novel, we are no longer sure whether the boy is awake or asleep, or whether the boy could possibly have fallen prey to the strange fellow's powers. "As I sucked the first words of the second paragraph, the lights were suddenly turned on. Dad was there. I swallowed wrong, and the words got stuck." Young readers will adore this eccentric tale of the power of reading, which surprises and delights on many levels. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

From the Publisher

Vibrant illustrations bring these ink-thirsty characters to life!

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385325916
• ISBN 13: 9780385325912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 37