Middle Grade Fantasy. Girl can interact with characters in a Fairytale book that she is reading. Book within a book. (Not Inkheart.) Read in early-mid 2000s.

[Megan]

I'm really getting the plot of this book wrong because it's been so long. This was a children's fantasy novel that I must have read in the late 1990s or early 2000s, but it might have an older publishing date than that. I know it's not Inkheart because I also read Inkheart as a child and remember that one.

Basically, from what I remember, this was basically a book within a book. The book was about a storybook fantasy land that I think the reader entered when she read it (or we as readers would get a glimpse into the fantasy land; there may not have been a reader character within the book per say). I vaguely remember there being some sort of love story element (the reader and a prince character or maybe two of the characters? I could be wrong about that. Could have also just been a friendship). I think their lives would start over if the book was restarted.

Possible spoiler (I don't remember if this was the ending or if there was more after this):














The book was somehow partially destroyed (maybe by a fire), and I think they had to rebuild what was left or something like that.

[Megan]

Wow, yes, I just read the synopsis, and Between the Lines is a very similar concept in many ways. I'd almost think that was it except for the publishing date and the fact that Between the Lines has a different ending than the one I remember this other title having.

[Rainbowheart]

Sounds vaguely like The Neverending Story?

[Florence]

Maybe the pagemaster?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Megan is still looking and wrote:

"I’m looking for what I think was a middle grade book (it could have been early YA) that I read in the early-mid 2000s. The pub date could have been earlier. It’s about a girl who can interact with characters in a fairytale she is reading. I think she ends up in the story. I also remember a fire or something and part of the world gets destroyed."

[Kris]

Megan, can you describe the girl - e.g., was she lonely, shy, an orphan, bullied, trying to escape mentally from a bad situation, no personal angst, etc.?

Can you describe some of the fairytale characters?

I copied a few book details to the header/ topic title. Feel free to edit it.

[Becca]

The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley? The book-within-the-book does get burnt in this one.
If not, it might be one of the other books on the Book-Jumping or Book-Travelling list.

[Taylor]

The fire aspect does sound like the sequel to Inkheart: Inkdeath

[SamSpayedPI]

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke for Taylor's link.