This highly original book by German author Cornelia Funke is grittier than a lot of books you'll find for this age range. It's also slower, taking time to build, offering details and layers most often glossed over by other young adult authors. The end result is a book where the characters feel more real, where the setting is fleshed out, and where the intense originality of the author's vision is given room to breathe. Above all else this is a book about reading (each chapter begins with a quote from a well known children's book that hints at what is to follow) and one in which books themselves take on an uncanny life of their own. The first of a three-part series, this is a great book for strong Middle School readers.