Inkheart

Chapters 1-10

Reading Check

1. Dustfinger appears in Meggie and Mo’s garden. (Chapter 1)

2. Mo and Meggie flee to Elinor’s house. (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. Meggie and Mo’s home is filled with books. Meggie reads when she cannot sleep or when she feels afraid. Mo always encourages Meggie to take books with her in a special book box when they travel; books are considered important friends on a journey and Mo believes that they can hold the memories of the places that they are taken. (Chapter 1 and Chapter 2)

2. Elinor is initially characterized as strict and uptight, particularly about her beloved book collection. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 11-20

Reading Check

1. Meggie’s mother vanished into the world of Inkheart. (Chapter 16)

2. Capricorn believes that threatening to hurt Meggie will allow him to manipulate Mo into reading for him. (Chapter 17)

Short Answer

1. The reader is made to feel angry at Dustfinger for betraying Meggie and Elinor; he is bringing them to Capricorn at Capricorn’s own request, rather than helping Meggie to find her father. (Chapter 14)

2. The reader feels sympathy for Dustfinger when they learn of his despair at being forced out of his own beloved world into one that he finds stressful and foreign. (Chapter 16) Capricorn burns the copies of Inkheart in front of Dustfinger, and Dustfinger believes that this destroys his chance to return to his own world. (Chapter 17)

Chapters 21-30

Reading Check

1. Meggie smells peppermint when she reads aloud about peppermint from a poem. (Chapter 23)

2. Meggie learns that Dustfinger is killed in Inkheart. (Chapter 24)

Short Answer

1. Elinor was previously someone who preferred to be alone; the fact that she feels lonely illustrates that human connection is becoming more important to her. (Chapter 28)

2. Elinor’s beloved library is burned as retribution for escaping from Capricorn’s prison in his village. This illustrates Capricorn’s cruelty because Elinor’s library is what she values most. (Chapter 28)

Chapters 31-40

Reading Check

1. Meggie reads Tinkerbell out of Peter Pan. (Chapter 38)

2. Capricorn wants Meggie to read the Shadow from Inkheart. (Chapter 40)

Short Answer

1. Farid observes that Resa looks like Meggie. (Chapter 33) Meggie hears that the maid used to have golden hair, like Meggie’s. (Chapter 39)

2. Capricorn is pleased that Meggie shares her father’s abilities because he plans to use her in the same way he wanted to use Mo before he escaped, which is to read riches out of books for him. (Chapter 39).

Chapters 41-50

Reading Check

1. Elinor decides to go to the police. (Chapter 47)

2. Mortola keeps Inkheart in a case of snakes. (Chapter 48)

Short Answer

1. Resa’s loyalty to her daughter, despite nine years away from her, is clear in her letter, which assures Meggie that Resa celebrated all her birthdays. (Chapter 49)

2. The police protect Capricorn rather than investigate Elinor’s report of the planned execution, and this demonstrates that Capricorn controls the local police through extortion and fear. (Chapter 50)

Chapters 51-59

Reading Check

1. Mo and Farid start the fire in the village. (Chapter 54)

2. Dustfinger steals the last copy of Inkheart from within Mo’s jacket. (Chapter 58)

Short Answer

1. Fenoglio is pulled into the world of Inkheart in exchange for the emergence of the Shadow. (Chapter 57)

2. Elinor’s house—which had been silent and empty at the beginning of the novel—is filled with fairies, goblins, trolls, and glass people from the Inkheart world, as well as Meggie, Mo, and Resa. (Chapter 59)