Star parts: Well I could just be completely biased and say it's by Cornelia Funke so of course it's good. But no. Igraine may be a spunky little 11/12 year old, but she has faults. She does want to be a knight, but she forgets the spells she's supposed to learn and she's terrified of spiders. She's also very kind and thoughtful. In fact, considering that ALL she wants to be is a knight, she's pretty well-rounded. And she gets scared and worries about stuff. I like the fact that if anything, Igraine isn't hung-ho. She's passionate about the thing she wants to be and then she's a kid.

I like stories with action, but while there is action, it's not 'action-packed'. There's a good ole story there as well: kid needs to save parents and protect her home and the books of ... (oh no I shouldn't give away the plot). I like Funke's take on quite traditional fairy tale elements, the knight is a girl, there's an ogre, but (well, you'll find out about him if you read the book). There's another Knight, there's the magic. Her parents are really lovely, even if they do get turned into pigs and it's all kind of amusing and nice.

Black clouds: I've moaned about this before, but it seems that if you're writing books for younger reader's nowadays you have to put little bios of the characters in the front of the books. What, you think 8 year olds can't remember who's who? And you give away parts of the plot! I'm sorry, but I find them a waste of paper, they give away key points of the plot and as when I read it with kids I tell them NOT TO READ IT. WE READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE CHARACTERS!

There were a few bits where Funke got carried away with description or stuff about Knight's, but not enough for me to sigh and roll my eyes or anything.

Do I recommend it: It's Funke, so of course I would say yes, but I've also read enough Funke now to have a pecking order. So bearing that in mind that, it's after Inkspell, Inkheart, Reckless (to be reviewed), and Dragon Rider. And also reminds me that I must read Inkdeath and ...