Puffin Books The Neverending Story

I first found the Neverending Story at my middle school library - hardback, colored ink, and the perfect book to take me away from the hellish world that only preteens can create. I don't know why this book struck me so; maybe it was the fantasy, maybe the terrifying, existential nature of the "Nothing," or maybe it was the unabashed way the author included the flaws in his characters.I have a first edition already but I wanted a copy to gift to my niece. My biggest concern was whether the copy offered here had the red and green ink of the original I read so long ago. Trust me, it makes a difference. That is why I am here to confirm that the hardcover copy ordered from Amazon (not sure about other sellers) is indeed in color, with the full page chapter illustrations to boot.

NO SPOILERS!!! My husband first read this book in German, while living in Germany. He had seen the movie when he was little and thought the book might be as entertaining. Well not only was it entertaining, but it was so much better than the movie. He loved the book so much that he bought an English version for me and told me that I had to read it. This book is unlike anything else I've ever read, its a story within a story. The magical world that Michael Ende creates is captivating. The characters are well thought out, and it's hard not to fall in love with them. We are now reading this to our little children and they are enjoying it just as much as we did. I highly recommend reading this story, by yourself, or to your children.

First of all, please don’t judge this book on its movies. The book is split into two movies. While I liked the first movie (which was close to the book), I thought the second movie (which wasn’t close at all) was a bit of a joke. I also felt like Bastian in the movie was almost useless, and I wanted a better conclusion.The book is a completely different matter. Never before have I cared so much about a character in a book. Bastian is a self-conscious, unpopular kid who makes up stories all the time and wants nothing more than to escape the humdrum of life to live in fantasy. I was exactly the same as a kid, and I read every fantasy book I could get my hands on. When I couldn’t find the story I wanted, I made it up. Sometimes, I wanted to hug Bastian, and sometimes I wanted to smack his stupid face, because he could be such an idiot, but he just wanted to help everyone.My favorite part, and the one that made me care about him, was when Bastian said that he didn’t like books that tried to convince him that it was real; he wanted pure fantasy. Life was full of humdrum. Nobody understood why I never read anything but fantasy, and the less believable, the more I wanted to get lost in it. And that is exactly what this book gave me. It is absolutely, utter fantasy. It’s a journey.I liked Atreyu as well, as he is consistently brave and heroic, yet mortal, throughout. There wasn’t a single character or creature that I thought was unnecessary or underplayed. I disliked a number of them, but they made the story better. The writing was excellent, especially for a book translated from German. The scenes were well-done.The narrator did this book justice. Except for Atreyu and Bastian, I could always tell everyone apart. Again, there were voices I didn’t like, but that was because of the characters/creatures themselves. He even did the rhyming, poetry, and singing better than I’ve ever heard from an audiobook. Fortunately, there was no music in the background. There were some times when the characters were whispering when I had to sit there with my thumb on the volume rocker, turning it up and down, but the story was just too good to let that bother me.Overall, in the top ten books I’ve ever read in my entire life. It doesn’t matter if this book is meant for children, because it reminds me of the utter freedom I felt when I was a child and discovered a masterpiece of fantasy.

The story is fantastic and even though its vocabulary and the narrative is truly intended for older kids my 6 year old daughter asks me to read it to her every night. I consider this a must read book for everyone.About this edition. Priced under what a medium latte goes for these days, this is a very affordable edition so I can't complain. It's light and the cover has a nice texture to it. However, the low price comes at the cost of the dual color printing of the original edition (as the story unfolds in both the real world and Fantastica, the original had green letters for one world and reddish letters for the other world, so having all black letters takes a bit away from the atmosphere). Ultimately there is no real harm done and black lettering may be better for some eyes; but if the colored printing is important for you, look at another edition.

This is such a weird book. So far beyond the movie. The movie ends maybe a third of the way into the book, and then the book just gets super weird and meanders through some possibly unnecessary terrain. It's trippy and vaguely psychedelic. It's an interesting look at loneliness, and at jealousy and ego and the various negative sides to personality. And it both praises and critiques creativity and imagination (the dark side of which is suspiciously missing from the film version). There's a certain amount of philosophy and metaphor that can be drawn from this, if you're looking for it.