Bastian Balthazar Bux is a bullied, belittled, and beleagured boy bestowed with a brain brimming with stories bound to become books.* One day, he steals an intriguing book from a local bookstore and locks himself in his school's attic to escape from the world. It is the Neverending Story, about a land in grave danger: Fantastica. As Bastian reads, he realizes that he is becoming part of the story- and he alone can save the realm. But who will save him from what he becomes?
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I was unexpectedly enchanted by this book. It's a fun and unexpected story with magical creatures, heroic deeds, and fantastic worlds. But the value is in how it presents a number of fundamental realities in this world- the pain of loneliness, need to be loved, desire to belong (yet be unique), hope of superiority and admiration, necessity of friendship, reality of failure, need for humility, power of story, importance of names, and (ultimately) the need to self-forgetfully love. Really, really good- I wish I had highlighted select passages as I read. This is a keeper.
Rating: A
*phew. Don't expect that to happen again.
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