Books like Inkheart
What should you read after Cornelia Funke’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Cornelia Funke
- 2003
- Children's fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Inkheart
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Neverending Story
Michael Ende
The other great novel about a boy who reads himself into trouble, and the book Funke is openly in conversation with. Start here if you want the source.
- Reading characters out of books
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Houses full of books
- Stranger and more allegorical
Great matchThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The plainest version of the same wish: an ordinary door, another world behind it, and children who have to be considerably braver than they are.
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- A father and daughter who love books
- Much shorter and simpler
Great matchHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J.K. Rowling
The obvious companion for a nine-year-old who loved Inkheart: an ordinary child, a hidden world with rules, and a villain who wants him personally.
- A villain who came off the page
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- A school story, no bookish premise
Great matchA Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle
A girl who has to rescue her missing father from something enormous, written with the same seriousness about children carrying adult-sized fear.
- A father and daughter who love books
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Houses full of books
- Science-fantasy, not literary magic
Worth a look — with a warningCoraline
Neil Gaiman
Gaiman understands, as Funke does, that the frightening thing in a children's book is a grown-up who has decided to keep you. Very short, very scary.
- A villain who came off the page
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Houses full of books
- Genuinely terrifying for some children
Worth a look — with a warningThe Book of Lost Things
John Connolly
A grieving boy falls into the fairy tales he has been reading, which turn out to be as old and cruel as the originals were. Inkheart for older readers.
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Reading characters out of books
- Epigraphs from other children's classics
- Adult, and considerably darker
Best for the ambitionThe Golden Compass
If Inkheart's danger felt real to you, Pullman raises everything: a fierce girl, adults who lie, and stakes that keep widening across three books.
- A villain who came off the page
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- Much longer and heavier
Great matchStardust
Neil Gaiman
A fairy tale told straight, with the old-fashioned pleasure Funke goes for: a journey, a market on a border, and characters out of a much older story.
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Epigraphs from other children's classics
- Written for adults
Best for younger readersThe Spiderwick Chronicles
Holly Black
A crumbling house, an old book that explains the monsters, and children who read it anyway. Inkheart's premise scaled down to a far easier read.
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Houses full of books
- Reading characters out of books
- Far shorter and simpler
Best if you want more FunkeThe Thief Lord
Cornelia Funke
Funke's other great book: runaway children hiding in Venice, with the same affection for old European cities and a magic that arrives late and quietly.
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- A villain who came off the page
- A father and daughter who love books
- Mostly realistic until the end
- Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning ThiefGreat match
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Stories stepping off the page again, this time Greek myth walking around modern America, with jokes. Much faster and funnier than Funke, if that appeals.
- Reading characters out of books
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- Comic, contemporary voice
Great matchElla Enchanted
Gail Carson Levine
A fairy tale rebuilt from the inside by someone who plainly loves the originals — the same delight in old stories, with a heroine arguing her way out.
- Epigraphs from other children's classics
- Old-fashioned Italian-village adventure
- Stories as literally dangerous
- A romance-shaped plot
Great matchThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew
The origin story: rings, a wood between worlds, and two children who open doors they shouldn't. The closest Narnia comes to Funke's dangerous crossings.
- Stories as literally dangerous
- Reading characters out of books
- Houses full of books
- Fifties children's prose
What should you read after Inkheart?
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende — the other great novel about a boy who reads himself into trouble, and the book Funke is openly in conversation with. Start here if you want the source.
If what stayed with you was stories as literally dangerous, read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by instead: the plainest version of the same wish: an ordinary door, another world behind it, and children who have to be considerably braver than they are. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling is the other strong option — the obvious companion for a nine-year-old who loved Inkheart: an ordinary child, a hidden world with rules, and a villain who wants him personally.
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