by Teena Kay

Created on: December 29, 2009   Last Updated: December 31, 2009

Bastian Balthasar Bux is a timid boy who gets bullied by classmates and while trying to hide from his tormentors, he ends up in an antique book shop. His mother died and his father is trying to keep life as normal as possible under the circumstances. He sees a book that instantly draws him in, a book entitled ‘The Neverending Story’. Intrigued, Bastian steals the book from the book shop and hides out in the school’s attic and starts reading.

 Bastian soon becomes emerged into the story of Fantastica (Fantasia) where the Childlike Empress is trying to save her land. The problem is, she is gravely ill and there is the ‘Nothing’ sweeping across the land, eating up the land bit by bit. The Empress sends out Atreyu, a 12 year old boy, to find a cure for her and stop the Nothing from devouring the land.

 Atreyu travels to Fantasia to find the saviour and meets a lot of challenges and makes new friends, including Falkur the friendly dragon. They set out to find the one person, a human child, who can save the Childlike Empress by giving her a new name, save Fantasia and defeat The Nothing.

 Bastian is engrossed in the book, following the adventures of Atreyu when he realises that something is not quite right with the book. It seems to be constantly changing and every time he reacts to happenings in the story, something seems to change and it feels like he is becoming part of the story.

 Will Atreyu find his way back to the Ivory Tower where the Childlike Empress lives and deliver the saviour? Who will this saviour be? Will Bastian hold the answer to the salvation of Fantasia? What will happen to Fantasia? What will become of Bastian? Will he own up to stealing the book?

So many questions but you have to read the book to find out.

There are a number of movies out covering some aspects of The Neverending Story, however I would advise reading the book. The first movie barely covers the first half of the book and as is well known, Michael Ende did not agree with the script and sued, without success, the film company. I cannot blame him as the movie barely scratches the surface and cannot deliver on what is produced in a reader’s imagination when reading. The movie is just a very bad attempt at covering a book that is impossible to film. I will always prefer the book to the movie, in fact, I dislike the movie so much, I will not accept it as a faithful interpretation of the actual book.

The book is no mean feat to

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