The Pagemaster

The adventures of the obsessively fearful Richard in this oversize, garishly illustrated allegory begin when he reluctantly ventures out on his bike, even though "most traffic accidents happen within three blocks of the home." In the library, he bumps his head (shades of The Wizard of Oz ) and finds that he must travel across a fantasy landscape teeming with characters from fiction--Moby Dick, Dr. Jekyll, Long John Silver, Thumbelina--to reach the exit. Three personified books--the piratical but cowardly Adventure, schoolmarmish Fantasy (an odd, sexist characterization) and ugly, eager-to-please Horror--accompany him on his pseudo-epic journey. At the end he must confront a dragon (and his fears) on his own.

Great story, but definitely meant for young kids. For once, the movie was better. Could be enjoyable for kids as a read aloud or on their own, though. It has plenty of adventure, fantasy, and (lightheaded) horror. ;)

This improves greatly on the movie, since you don't have to deal with the crappy acting. My students loved this book as an introduction to genres.

Clumsy - you could tell the movie came first. And the movie might have been pretty good, but the book was just flat, sorry. For one thing, if it's meant to get reluctant readers to go to the library, it should give titles, and those titles should include books that kids will actually read. I can just see a 10 year-old boy asking the librarian for 'that book with the great white whale and the crazy man.' And who says [b:The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|30597|The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|Victor Hugo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168079239s/30597.jpg|3043569] is horror? Or am I confused and the plea for Sanctuary!" is from a different book?"

There was an error on page 92. Richard wears glasses, however, in the illustration he has none.

The library card features in this book - 'She looked down and noticed Richard's card on thr ground. 'What have we here?' She picked up the card and examined it. 'A library card...!'

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