Inkling, by Kenneth Oppel

An ink blot comes to life and makes friends with a boy. I love this idea and I love what Oppel did with it!

Inkling is completely convincing as a character, from the moment he pulls himself out of Ethan's dad's sketchbook, has to run for his life from Rickman the cat, and takes refuge in Ethan's room. He eats ink for sustenance, and gains vocabulary and understanding from the comics and books he ingests. It's brilliant and hilarious the way his writing reflects what he just ate. (The scene after he eats some of Anne of Green Gables is worth buying the book for.)(Oppel is Canadian: he's allowed to poke gentle, loving fun at one of our icons.)

Ethan is terrible at drawing, even though his dad is a famous comic book artist. Inkling's ability to draw anything is an obvious and tempting solution to the art project that is stressing Ethan out. But Inkling has to figure out his own purpose for existence, separate from what everyone else wants from him.

This is a family story, a friendship story, a story about art and consumerism, about trust and loyalty. It's delightful and funny and goes to some really interesting, deep places. Every character is thoughtfully motivated, including all the adults. Moral dilemmas all over the place, treated with the respect they deserve. The right answer isn't always obvious or easy.

I loved Ethan's relationship with his younger sister Sarah; I loved Sarah's relationship with Inkling and her perspective on things. I loved that her Down Syndrome isn't an issue or a problem or noteworthy in any way.

Ethan's family just felt so real. Ethan's dad is believably absent-minded enough that Ethan has to take a lot of responsibility for caring for himself and his sister, but he's not one of those negligent parents that adults hate to read about in middle-grade books! There's sadness because their mom died, but a lot of love and mutual support.

Even Rickman gets his own small but important character arc.

Inkling made me smile on so many different levels: the way the plot played out, the way the characters developed, the cleverness of the ideas, the layers of humour. It may also have gotten me a little teary-eyed at some points, and I was on the edge of my seat in several suspenseful scenes. Definitely no sense of "I'm an adult appreciating a book written for kids": I was immersed.

A highly entertaining and compelling offering from one of Canada's foremost writers. (I've gushed about Kenneth Oppel before. He's just fantastic.)

My Easter breakfast this morning was French toast with 9% lemon yogurt (just as good as whip cream) and blackberries. Sweet and comforting with extra zings of flavour. Just as enjoyable and filling as this book!