When I first started reading this book, I was a little disappointed because it reminded me so much of other stories I had already read: “The Book of Stories,” “Inkheart,” “The Eyre Affair.” In all four of these books, you, as a reader, get sucked into the story so quickly that when you are called to dinner, 4 or 5 times, you close the book and blink suddenly in the bright light of the real world. And then you get to go with the characters into other books!
In “Inkheart,” of course, Cornelia Funke has characters from a fictional book brought out of the story by a special reader. But “The Book of Stories,” “The Book Jumper” and “The Eyre Affair” all have the main characters interacting with well-loved stories, many of which you have read: Jane Eyre, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Alice in Wonderland – all stories that you, as an avid reader, have at least perused on occasion.
So back to “The Book Jumper.” While I had trouble loving this book at the beginning with the general plot being so similar to the others, as the story progressed, I enjoyed it more and more. I like the fact that this book focuses on the ideas behind the stories. It makes you think, as though in a literature class, what is the idea that holds a story together? Without a cyclone, Dorothy would never meet the Wizard. Without Sherlock Holmes, what happens to the hound? Just for the fact that this book brings you closer to understanding why the teachers in our Lit classes were trying to teach us, this book is a must read for all.