>>2 I really didn't want to spoil it for people who haven't but here is a summary of the first book, Inkheart:
Mortimer (Mo) Folchart is a bookbinder and has the rare gift of reading things and characters out and into books (he does not have control over what goes in or out) when reading aloud. He discovered his talent while reading a book to his friend a dead cat came out of the book that he was reading to his friend when he was a young child. One night he read a book called Inkheart to his wife, Teresa. Mo accidentally read Resa into Inkheart and read characters out of Inkheart (Capricorn, Basta, Dustfinger and his pet marten Gwin.) Meggie was 2 years old and can't remember her mother at all.
10 years later, Dustfinger comes to Mo (known as Silvertongue) to warn him that Capricorn wants all copies of Inkheart destroyed so they can't travel between books. Mo, Meggie (now 12) and Dustfinger move in with Meggie's great-aunt Elinor. While staying with Elinor, Capricorn kidnaps Mo and takes him to his village, a little town in Italy.
Capricorn wants Mo to read out treasure from books. While reading, Mo accidentally reads out a young boy called Farid from the book One Thousand And One Nights. Meanwhile, Dustfinger rescues Mo, Elinor, Meggie and Farid.
Now that they have escaped, Mo decides to visit the author of Inkheart (Fenoglio) to get his copy of the book so he can read Teresa back. Sadly, Fenoglio doesn't have a copy, his only copy was stolen. Mo, Elinor, Dustfinger and Farid had gone for a while when Meggie and Fenoglio are captured by Capricorn's men.
As prisoner, Meggie soon discovers that she has the same gift of reading characters out of books. It started when she read Tinkerbell out of a story book Darius (a stammering man, formerly Capricorn's reader) had left behind. Basta finds out when he sees Tinkerbell and Capricorn makes her read out his assassin Shadow.
Meanwhile, Mo, Elinor, Farid and Dustfinger try to save Meggie. Meggie meanwhile finds a mute maid of Mortola's called Resa who she believes is her mother. She was read out by Darius.
With the help of Fenoglio, Meggie reads out the Shadow and makes him kill Capricorn. But to replace the Shadow, Fenoglio is read into Inkheart. Basta and Mortola escape.
In the end, Mo, Resa and Meggie decide to live at Elinor's house. Dustfinger, now really homesick, takes Mo's copy of Inkheart.
