The Neverending Story

the long version

The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who is neglected by his father (who has sunken into despair after having lost his wife) and is bullied by his schoolmates. While running from some of them, Bastian bursts into the antique book store of Carl Conrad Coreander. Bastian steals a book from the store called The Neverending Story which Coreander has been reading; he hides in his school's attic, where he proceeds to read the story through the rest of the day and the night, not realizing