Cornelia Funke

At 65 years old, Cornelia Funke physical status not available right now. We will update Cornelia Funke's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

During the late 1980s and the 1990s, Funke established herself as writer of children's fiction in Germany. Her early work includes two children's series—the fantasy-oriented Gespensterjäger (Ghosthunters) and the Wilde Hühner (C.H.I.X.) line of books. Funke's initial success was relegated to her native Germany, but once her novels began being translated into English in 2002, she achieved wider recognition. Barry Cunningham, a publisher who was well-known for signing J. K. Rowling and publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997, received a letter from a young bilingual girl who asked why Funke's novel hadn't been translated into English yet. Cunningham sought out Funke and decided to released her novels in English through his newly-formed publishing house, The Chicken House.

Funke's first book to be translated into English was The Thief Lord, originally published in 2000 as Herr der Diebe. The translation, released by The Chicken House in 2002, won widespread acclaim and reached several best-seller lists. It was later adapted into a feature film of the same name in 2006.

Another early English translation was Dragon Rider, originally published in Germany in 1997 as Drachenreiter. Released in the United States in 2004, it became a massive success, and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 78 weeks, reaching number one on the Children's Best-Seller list. A sequel, Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather, was published over a decade later, in 2017, and a feature film adaptation of the same name was released in 2020.

Funke found further acclaim Inkheart (2003), which won the 2004 BookSense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature. Inkheart was the first part of a trilogy and was continued with Inkspell (2005), which won Funke her second BookSense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature in 2006. The trilogy was initially concluded in Inkdeath, but has been revived in 2020 when Funke announced that a sequel called Die Farbe der Rache (The Color of Revenge) will be published by October 2021 in Germany.

Following the release of the first Inkheart novel, New Line Cinema bought the film rights to all three books for a cinema adaptation. Funke moved to Los Angeles in 2005 after she had accepted the offer to participate as the film's producer alongside Barry Mendel. Principal photography on the Inkheart film began in 2006. Directed by Iain Softley, the film is based on a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire and features an ensemble cast that includes Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, Rafi Gavron, Andy Serkis and newcomer Eliza Bennett, among others. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews. In 2009, a video game based on the film was released for the Nintendo DS.

In 2010, Cornelia returned with her first book since Inkdeath in 2007, Reckless. The combined printing run for the first hardcover edition was 1,000,000 copies. Two sequels, Fearless and The Golden Yarn, were released in 2013 and 2016.

In 2015, the film Ghosthunters on Icy Trails (German original title: Gespensterjäger), based on her novel Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost!, was released in Germany on 2 April 2015.

In 2017, Funke published The Book No One Ever Read, the first work written by the author in English, as opposed to being written in German first. Funke calls the picture book her "Inkheart for kindergartners" and also illustrated the book herself.

Source

• 1998 – Kalbacher Klapperschlange for Drachenreiter (Dragon Rider)
• 2000 – Wildweibchenpreis for her collected works
• 2000 – La vache qui lit for Herr der Diebe (The Thief Lord)
• 2001 – Kalbacher Klapperschlange for Herr der Diebe
• 2001 – Preis der Jury der jungen Leser for Herr der Diebe
• 2002 – Evangelischer Buchpreis for Herr der Diebe
• 2003 – Corine Literature Prize for Herr der Diebe
• 2003 – Mildred L. Batchelder Award for Herr der Diebe
• 2003 – Nordstemmer Zuckerrübe for Kleiner Werwolf
• 2004 – Preis der Jury der jungen Leser for Tintenherz (Inkheart)
• 2004 – Phantastik-Preis der Stadt Wetzlar for Tintenherz
• 2004 – Kalbacher Klapperschlange for Tintenherz
• 2004 – Book Sense Children's Literature Award (Children's Literature Honor Books) for Inkheart
• 2006 – Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature Winner for Inkspell
• 2008 – Roswitha Prize for her body of work
• 2020 – Special Award For Lifetime Achievement from the German Youth Literature Awards