A Straw for Two (Ink Drinker) - Hardcover

Sanvoisin, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385327021 ISBN 13: 9780385327022

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Bitten by an ink-drinking vampire who is allergic to blood, Odilon, the son of a bookstore owner, has become an ink drinker. Now he loves using a straw to devour books, but he has no one to share his secret with. He’s lonely . . . until a new girl, Carmilla, arrives at school. Could he make her an ink drinker too? When Odilon follows Carmilla home, he discovers that she’s just as special as he is, and that there’s plenty for them to share. . . .
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this title

Review:

Bitten by the word-slurping vampire Draculink, young Odilon became an ink drinker in the book by the same name, learning to live letter-by-letter as he drank the ink from the pages of books through a straw. In his vampiric state, Odilon is now light as a feather, quiet as a pair of slippers, and sharp-eyed as a cat ("courtesy of all the books about cats I've drunk"). He's lived "a thousand lives" through the stories he's sipped, becoming an astronaut, a pirate, and a pioneer. But something's wrong: "The hard part is that I can't share my straw with anyone. I'm very lonely." This problem forces him back to Draculink's dank, dark crypt to ask the unthinkable: "Mr. Draculink, can I bite a girl so that she becomes like me?"

But when Odilon returns to the lonely, old ink drinker, he's in for a surprise--alongside Draculink's long, wooden casket, he finds a second, smaller, suspiciously Odilon-sized box. Draculink can't be planning to adopt the unwilling young ink drinker! Before Odilon can guess Draculink's intentions, however, he discovers a girl worthy of his ink-thirsty bite, the new girl in class, Carmilla, "prettier than the prettiest girl in school." ("The assignment was to draw a map of our country, with the capital and the main cities. I drew a heart instead, with a capital named Carmilla," Odilon gushes.) But when he chases her, she runs toward the cemetery... home of Draculink's crypt!

Expect more inspired weirdness from Eric Sanvoisin, as he pens the worthy follow-up to the bizarrely lovable The Ink Drinker. And Martin Matje's looming blue illustrations make for splendid drinking once again. (Ages 9 and older) --Paul Hughes

From the Back Cover:

“[Readers] will get a kick out of Odilon’s furtive nighttime escapades.”
–Publishers Weekly

From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385327021
• ISBN 13: 9780385327022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Matje Martin