King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Ink Drinker

author: Eric Sanvoisin

genre: childrens book ages 8-12

published: 1996

pages: 35

rated: 4 out of 5

My father owns a bookstore. He loves books. He devours them like an ogre. All day and long into the night, he reads. It's an obsession. There's no cure, but our family doctor doesn't seem to worry.

My daughter brought The Ink Drinker home from school and we read it together. We read books together often, and I wanted to review this one because I thought the story was an interesting one.


The story is narrated by a young boy, who remains nameless and whose father is a booklover. The little boy dislikes books and hates to read, and to top it all off his dad owns a bookstore. During summer vacation he is helping his father out by watching for shoplifters in the store, when he spots a strange looking man stick a straw into a book and begin to drink. When the man leaves, the little boy looks at the book only to find the letters are missing and the book is light as a feather. Curious, he follows the man and ends up at the cemetary and going down into an underground crypt.

With my very own eyes I saw the unknown reader drinking a book! I'm not kidding. And I swear I wasn't hallucinating. For five minutes I saw him walking silently between the shelves, with his eyes closed and his arms stretched out in front of him. It was as though he were listening to the sound of the books.

I'll leave it at that so I don't spoil the story, but as we were reading this weird little tale, we were hooked on it and enjoyed it very much. My daughter has read it several times over. This is a fun story, with a creepy twist. I recommend it.



The Ink Drinker is actually just one in a series of Inky books like A Straw for Two and Little Red Ink Drinker.