Cornelia Funke

For years Cornelia Funke has been one of the best-known and bestselling children's authors in Germany. In fact, many people have called her the German J. K. Rowling. Americans, however, were not exposed to Funke's work until 2002, when her book Herr der Diebe was translated into English and released by Scholastic Press as The Thief Lord. The book made every major bestseller list and won countless awards. It also established Funke as a storyteller on an international scale, since the book has since been published in nearly forty countries. In 2003 Funke released her second book, Inkheart. Publisher's Weekly called it "delectably transfixing," and readers were left clamoring for more of their favorite new author. She always does her own sketches in pen and ink - she creates a picture of her own characters to help her write about them. Cornelia Funke describes herself as a passionate reader and one of her goals as an author is to "try to awaken the passion for reading in children and adults."