Bastian: He is a small, fat, timid boy about ten or twelve years old. He is really insecure about himself and he is incapable to love anybody. At the end of the story he makes a change in his personality allowing him to love, making him a brave and responsible boy.

Atreyu: He is an athletic small boy; he is a Greenskin and lives in the Grassy Ocean, as regards his personality he is brave, fearless, kind and a really good friend. Also, he is a dedicated boy, as he fulfills the Great Quest with great effort and sacrifice.

Falkor: He is a luckdragon, he is white and looks like a snake with batlike wings and his singing is the sweetest and most beautiful sound in all Fantastica. Falkor is a hopeful animal, he never loose hope even in the worst moments, as for he is a luck dragon he believes in luck.

Moon Child: She looks like a child with white hair but she is the eldest being in Fantastica. Moon Child is wise, clever and beautiful. She makes no difference between any creature of Fantastica, neither ugly nor beautiful, neither bad nor evil, etc.

Plot

The story begins when Bastian Balthazar Bux, a fat boy about ten or twelve years old, steals a book from Mr. Coreander (the owner of the library where the book was). After this he hides in the school attic and starts reading the book. The book tells the story of Fantastica, an enchanted world full of mysteries and adventures, and Bastian loses him self in the story.

Fantastica is at its end because its emperor and creator, the Childlike Empress, is dying. So she entrust a mission to find out the cure for her illness, the Great Quest, to a boy about the same age than Bastian called Atreyu. For this, she gives him AURYN (the emblem of the Childlike Empress) that guides him in his journey around Fantastica.

Atreyu with the help of Falkor, a luckdragon who became friend of Atreyu after he saved him, discovers that the Childlike Empress needs a new name that has to be given by a human, and when he tells this to the Childlike Empress she says that se already knew and that that human is Bastian. Bastian has to say in loud voice the name that he has invented for the Childlike Empress so he can be transported to Fantastica. But he is afraid for what she might think of him, as he does not look like a hero, so she pushes him to do it by meeting the Old Man of Wandering Mountain. Finally, Bastian cries out the name he had invented for her, Moon Child, and he is transported to Fantastica.

Moon Child, gives Bastian AURYN with an extra power that aloud all of Bastian’s wishes to come true. At first all of Bastian’s wishes center on being powerful, admired, and feared by others, each time he wishes for something he looses a memory of the human’s world. He becomes a good friend of Atreyu after meeting him at the Silver City of Amarganth. But as Bastian falls further under greed and power, Bastian becomes paranoid and thinks that Atreyu want to steal AURYN from him but Atreyu just wants to prevent Bastian to forget all his memories from the human world, as he knows he will be trapped in the City of the Old Emperors if he does. Noble Atreyu must fight to save Bastian from himself when he tries to crown himself Emperor of Fantastica. Bastian seeks revenge against Atreyu, but he bump into the City of the Old Emperors and find out what the real intentions of Atreyu where.

After that he has few wishes left and he is guided to the Sea of Mist where he wishes to be accepted in a community and be part of it, so he is accepted in the community of the Yskalnari. After crossing the Sea of Mist (which is called Skaidan by the Yskalnari) he realizes that his next wish is to be loved for who he is, he wants to be loved just as he is.

So this wish takes him to the House of Change where Dame Eyola gives him love and care, here he finds out he has to reach the Water of Life if he wants to return home. This place takes him to his next wish, which is the longing to be capable of loving.

This wish sets him on a new path. He journeys deep into Yor’s Minroud Mine where he has to find a picture to guide him, a forgotten dream of his. After a long while Bastian finds his dream, a picture of a man that was shut up in a transparent but impenetrable block of ice.

So Bastian takes this picture to guide him and starts a new journey, where after an inconvenient the pictures falls and crumble into dust. At this moment, Bastian thinks it has all ended and that he wont be able to get out but Atreyu and Falkor appear, and Bastian gives his magic medallion to Atreyu ; this decision allows Bastian to drink from the Water of Life. These powerful waters open Bastian’s heart to love and allow him to take that love back home, where he takes this love to his father and they start a new lovely relationship.

CONCLUSION

I personally think the book taught me about how important your friends might be, even though you don’t appreciate them.

I thought the book was really interesting as it always kept you wondering what would happen next.