I enjoyed the first half of the book (Bastian's back story and Atreyu's quest). The second half was another matter! It borrowed heavily from Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and well known fairytales. These storylines have been done before and it was tiring to plod through the rest of the story. What started out as a slight morality tale went into full preaching mode. Bastian was a likeable character at first and I really disliked how Ende turned him into a spoiled and ignorant brat. The second half didn't at all relate to the first, it was disjointed and sloppy.

Bastian says at the beginning of the book: "He couldn't stand it when a writer tried to convince him of something." Funny how Michael Ende tries to do just that.