Off the Page

Inkling tells the story of Ethan, whose father is a well-known artist. Everyone assumes Ethan is good at drawing, too. So he’s asked to illustrate a graphic novel for a school project. But Ethan has a secret: He hates to draw. His pictures never look like what he is trying to show.

Then Ethan comes home from school to discover that his terrible drawings for the project have become phenomenal works of art. The source of the transformation is Inkling, a living splat of ink who soaks up words and pictures and draws with them. Inkling and Ethan go on to have many adventures.

Author Kenneth Oppel told TFK Kid Reporter Roman Peterson that, like Ethan, he loved art as a child. “But I got psyched out by other kids in my class who could draw realistically,” he said. “So I put my creative energy into writing. I knew I was really good at that.”