“Owen wanted to scream at the horror before him.”

From James Riley’s Story Thieves.

Owen spends his days suffering through the boredom of school, homework, chores, and helping his mother at the library.  One thing that Owen enjoys is reading, especially books in the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, which features the adventures of Kiel and his wizard mentor, Magister.  While shelving books at the Library, Bethany, a girl from his class pulls herself out of a book right in front of Owen.  In an effort to keep Owen from telling her secret, Bethany tells him the truth… she is the daughter of a human mother and a fictional, literary father, and she somehow has the ability to physically enter books and the stories found on the pages.  As a young child, she accidentally pulled her father into a book and he was lost, so Bethany has been searching for him ever since.  Seeing a chance to be a hero, Owen tricks Bethany into taking him into the second-to-last Kiel book so he can save Magister from being killed before the series finale comes out in a few weeks.  Things quickly go wrong when Magister uses a bit of Bethany’s power to come into the real world (with a reluctant Kiel) to find his author and change his fate.  As Bethany works with Kiel to try to get Magister back in the book before he destroys the world’s stories, a mysterious man named Nobody places Owen in the final book, disguises him as Kiel, and tells him to fight through the unpublished story with Kiel’s best friend (Charm) without breaking character or altering the story.  Both children must face impossible odds if they want to have any chance of fixing this and saving the world.

This book is instantly captivating, reaching readers who have fantasized about living their favorite book.  The two main characters are smart, fun, and honest making them easy to like. The story is constantly developing, but manages to keep readers engaged. Story Thieves is a must-read for fantasy fans of all ages.