I don't really have anything to add, I just love this book. I searched for "The NeverEnding Story" in this community, saw that there was no post about it and wanted to fix that :).
If you pick up this book, I highly recommend another book written by the same author - Michael Ende - called Momo.
The fantasy parts of the NES sometimes feel like allegory but mostly feel like folly. But Momo is ostensibly an allegory from the beginning. It also feels like waking up your inner child.
The parts of the NES that were not adapted into the films are absolutely whimsical and amazing. It's a true wonder why some details were used in the film and not others. It's a lot of fun!
This is an interesting insight. I have a degree in philosophy but tap danced around the Nietzsche class to go to the phenomenology & existentialism course instead lol
As a 30 something, the movie is part of my dna, but I never read the book sadly. May check it out soon though, I'm trying to get my 7 year old to read more with me atm. And that cover art is beautiful.
I thought about adding a warning about the movies... I find very hard to ackowledge they exist (half kidding :P). Not because they are bad, but they are sooo different from the book; it's sad for me that they are the reference for the name.
I'm not sure I would recommend the book to children younger than ... (?) 11-12 years old. Although maturity in this regard is very personal and subjective and I'm not the one to say who should read what.
I have the edition this picture is from in my shelf, my father handed it down to me when I was a kid. It's a gorgeous edition, each part of the story is printed in a different color to represent which world it's taking place in, I wish more books tried to experiment with the style a little bit. By the way, both links in your post lead to two different Spanish editions, mine is the one from the second link.