Artemis Fowl, The Lost Colony

Artemis Fowl, The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

Category: Kid-lit Grade: A

So, what makes kid-lit kid-lit? When I was growing up, we boys read the Hardy Boys and girls read Nancy Drew and everybody read the Bobsey Twins. The books were short. They had big print. They had simple plots with "smack-you-between-the-eyes" morals. Everybody assumed that, to keep teens interested, these were the rules you had to follow. This situation was slowly changing over the couple of decades. Authors like C.S. Lewis (Narnia), Phillip Pullman (Golden Compass) and even, to some extent, Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) were writing stories that were intelligent, well written with complex plots. They were about the same length as adult novels. Then in the 90s, Harry Potter changed all the rules for popular teen (even pre-teen) and young adult books. All of a sudden, it was OK if a big was long, complicated with fully fleshed out characters - kids, and many adults, would stand in line to buy a good book. About the only thing that all of the so-called kid-lit books have in common is that the primary characters were kids - i.e. somebody kids could relate to. But these were such interesting kids that the books appealed to a wide audience.

The Artemis Fowl series took advantage of this new world with a series about a teenage (actually younger in the first book) genius who starts out as one of the world 11 year old master criminals. In the middle of one of his capers, he discovers the long hidden underground world the fairies -- gnomes, pixies, demons, imps - a great big cast of characters. Through the books, we watch Artemis get a little older and develop an interesting moral sense.

The Lost Colony is the fifth book in the series. Artemis is 14 and - surprise, surprise - has hit puberty and discovered girls. The girl another child genius is about where Artemis was 4 books ago -- 11 and brilliant, manipulating all the adults around her. When they both end up working on the same fairy-world issue, for opposite reasons, they make a connection that jumps all over the map.

This is not serious fiction like Tolkien or, to be honest, not even like Rowlins. Its light, funny, well-written and full of action. Its just a plain entertaining read. I highly recommend it to any of you who have any tolerance for fantasy and, of course, to any of you who have any control over the reading lists of a kid-lit target. If you seriously want to give this series a try, I'd suggest you pick up the first book. A lot of the in jokes won't make sense if you don't read the books in order.