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Thursday 21 June 2012

Criminally good - Penny Garnsworthy on Artemis Fowl




Criminally good ...
 
That's the byline from Eoin Colfer's book Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony. In May I was fortunate enough to attend the CBCA national conference in Adelaide and privileged to meet one of my favourite children's authors, Eoin Colfer who hails from Ireland and was one of the keynote speakers at the conference.
I thought I had read all the Artemis Fowl books - not necessarily in order - but a review of the website http://www.artemisfowl.com/ (which is fantastic I might add) has in fact revealed I am two short. Plus (and Eoin mentioned this as he was signing a book for me at the conference) the final book in the series is due for release soon. What a sad day it will be when I read the last line of Artemis Fowl, The Last Guardian. And even sadder I should think, for Eoin. But then once I have read the remaining three, I'll simply start reading the series all over again, and this time in order.

But I digress ... Artemis Fowl is a 12 year old brilliant criminal mastermind ... well he was 12, and he was a brilliant criminal mastermind, but somewhere along the line Artemis grew up (as some of us do) and although still brilliant, he eventally changed from being a criminal into a mastermind who apprehends criminals. But these are no ordinary criminals; most of them aren't even human; they're armed, they're dangerous, they're technologically advanced and they live underground. And it is here the fun and excitement begins.

Colfer's stories centre on a crime, and the battle between good and evil. Sometimes that battle takes place here on earth, other times beneath us in the complex world of the fairies. But there's always a world to save. And although there's some violence, Colfer doesn't glamorise crime and young Artemis always has a lesson to learn. They're a great read, for all ages and I guess you could say his books are ... criminally good.

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