"Haroun and the Sea of Stories"

I know, this is technically two posts on the same day. "The Giver" post had been sitting in my draft box all week, and I was going to do a double post with "Gathering Blue". I just didn't quite get around to writing everything I wanted to say about it. And, yes, it appears backdated.
So, here's another book instead.

"Haroun and the Sea of Stories"
Salman Rushdie
Granta Books, 1990
ISBN 0-14-015737-9

Rashid Khalifa is the Ocean of Notions, a storyteller with the ability to captivate audiences, who tells his son Haroun that his amazing stories come from the sips of the mythical Sea of Stories. When the Shah of Blah loses his gift of the gab, Haroun must come to his father's rescue and reconnect him to the Sea of Stories, as well as save the whole Sea of Stories and the city of Gup from the awful silence that threatens it.

This is technically an adult book, but I can easily see it as a YA book. It's very well written, without being too prosey, or too florid. I do love Rushdie's use of language and words. Every name means something (and there's a handy appendix in the back for it.) While reading this book, I like to just whisper some of the words aloud: Kahani, Abhinaya, Khattam-Shud. There's so much importance placed on words, it makes it a lovely read.
The plot is easy enough to follow without being boring. And Haroun is a sensible main character, which fits him perfectly as Gup City, and most of Kahani, seems to be populated by over-excitable characters who make him seem at times both foolish and wise.

And, my personal favorite part is that the army of Gup City is headed by a "librarian", as the army is made up of "pages" divided into "chapters". :)