By NANCY PATE

By NANCY PATE
ORLANDO SENTINEL
"Inkheart," by Cornelia Funke (Chicken House/Scholastic, $19.95)
OOKS FALL OPEN -- YOU fall in."
So goes one popular saying. And, really, isn't that what we readers yearn for, tales that take us out of the real world into lands strange and fabulous?
Cornelia Funke's entertaining new fantasy for middle-graders and teens turns this metaphor into metafiction: "Inkheart" is about a book named "Inkheart." Reading aloud from it one day, Mo the bookbinder summons forth several of its characters into reality and loses his wife and two cats in its pages. No matter how often he reads the story, he can't bring his wife home, nor can he send back the villainous Capricorn and the trickster Dustfinger.
But at the beginning of Funke's "Inkheart," 12-year-old Meggie, whose mother disappeared when she was 3, doesn't know this. Then the mysterious Dustfinger shows up at their door one night, calling her father Silvertongue and warning him that Capricorn is on the trail of him and a copy of an especially rare book. Next, Mo and Meggie visit Meggie's great-aunt, Elinor, whose house is filled with old and valuable volumes. And there Meggie begins to learn more of the secrets of "Inkheart."
As Mo at last tells her about its setting, Meggie says she hopes her mother likes living in that enchanted land. Mo assures her that her mother no doubt loves the fairies, but he still worries about all the bad things in the book. Meggie suggests that maybe the story has changed. Mo agrees:
Another realm?
"Perhaps there's another, much larger story behind the printed one, a story that changes just as our own world does. And the letters on the page tell us only so much as we'd see peering through a keyhole. Perhaps the story in the book is just the lid on a pan."
An interesting concept but not a new one. A number of children's authors have toyed with the premise of books and characters coming alive, including Michael Ende ("The Neverending Story") and Roderick Townley ("The Great Good Thing"). Jasper Fforde's wonderful Thursday Next series ("The Eyre Affair," "Lost in a Good Book") has become a cult favorite for adults and older teens.
Funke, author of the magical "The Thief Lord," has some fun with her fantasy, but she doesn't do as much with it as one might hope. Translated from German by Anthea Bell, the overlong narrative bumps along unevenly as Funke juxtaposes the once-upon-a-time world Capricorn has set up in a remote Italian village with the trappings of modern times -- credit cards, cafes and cars.
Plot, characters lacking
The plot, although studded with kidnappings, close calls and chase scenes, doesn't generate much suspense and, alas, most of the characters remain merely characters. Meggie, for all her reading, seems an unworldly 12-year-old. Gruff Elinor, with her passion for her home library, is the most memorable figure.
Still, as an homage to books and reading, "Inkheart" works well. Each chapter begins with a quote from such classics as "The Children of Green Knowe," "The Hobbit," "Huckleberry Finn" and "Peter Pan." Funke also alludes to books and writers through the pages. She reminds us that the best books are magic, doorways to worlds we want to visit again and again. "Inkheart's" fine for a one-time trip, but where's my copy of "The Once and Future King"?