I just finished this third book in the Artemis Fowl series. (You can find my posts about the first book here and about the second book here.) As I said before, I like this series. The characters have a little more depth then what I expected in a book about (and for) a thirteen-year-old.This book brought back all the great characters. Colfer isn't afraid to hurt the characters in ways that will significantly change who they are and what they do. This is refreshing.
I listened to this book in the car, and at one point, an American criminal says, "No more blarney." I wasn't sure I heard the voice actor correctly. The actor does almost every voice in either an Irish accent or some kind of English accent. But because this particular criminal was American (I don't think there were any American characters in the first two books) the actor did an American accent. I know that Eoin Colfer is Irish, so for one of his characters to use the word "blarney" doesn't come as a big surprise, but for an American to say it? The only kind of American that would use "blarney" has no self-respect and must come from the set of Portlandia. And this character didn't belong on the set of Portlandia. He is supposed to be a hardened Chicago gangster type. Sorry Eoin, this guy is not going to be saying "blarney." I had to look it up to make sure I had heard it correctly. I did. You can find the excerpt here. There must be a word for this, (like anachronism, but for the wrong country), but I couldn't find one.
Outside of the Irish-speaking-American, the book was a lot of fun.
Format: audiobook
Read/don't read: read
You can find this book at Amazon.com here: Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
I love Jann Brett's illustrations! Compared to the other two books of hers that we have read recently, I thought these illustrations seemed a little washed out; not as vibrant. But they are still great illustrations. The story is that of Cinderella with a chicken twist... kind of strange. And because it is Cinderella, not really a fantastic message for the kids, but the illustrations are great.
This is another Christmas book from the library. I liked the story and the illustrations were OK. This is about a little girl who learns the lesson, "It is far better to give than it is to receive!" My problem with the book is its length. I suppose this is just personal preference, but this is a bed-time story, as are all picture books like this. This book took us almost twenty minutes to get through. The story was good, but not twenty minutes good.
Our library has a seasonal section. That is to say, all the seasonal books are kept on one set of shelves, so when my wife goes looking for Christmas books, my four-year-old finds Valentine's Day books. Hence: The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart. The book was fun, and captured the thinking of a little girl who thinks of herself as a fairy princess. My girls were distracted by the time we got to this book, but I think they would have enjoyed it more, if there hadn't been other things more exciting to capture their attention (e.g., molding clay and a pretend car made from a shipping box).
This was a fun book for the girls. Apparently we have seen Caralyn and Mark Buehner 
This book sucks. It is one of those cardboard books where the non-bound edge is cut to the shape of a picture. This is a book all about kids getting crap for Christmas from Santa. There is a little bit about a kitty too. There is nothing redeeming about this book. If this book belonged to me and not the library, I would throw it away.
I previously posted about another bear book called Little Bear 
This is our second Jan Brett book we have checked out from the library. The ten-year-old apparently remembered that we had checked one out last time, and she came up to me in the library with an armful of Brett's books. The book is about some Nordic-esque children whose Christmas season is being ruined by some thieving trolls. The little girl ends up making friends with the trolls and teaches them how to have a happy Christmas for themselves.
Jen has been asking for sometime that we read a parenting book together. She even signed us up for some Love and Logic classes put on by the local school district, but we didn't end up going. Recently she borrowed 
This was another book we got from the library last night. It is a fun book about preschool age dinosaurs who are playing, creating and having fun until Tyrannosaurus enters the scenes and wrecks whatever was going on. I guess he is kind of a bully, and the book shows how he can be less of a bully, and how everyone can wreck things sometimes. One thing I have always hated about children's books about dinosaurs is that I have to pronounce all the dinosaur names. Tyrannosaurus isn't so bad, but Gallimimus and Apatosaurus. Luckily, there wasn't a lot of text in the book, otherwise I wouldn't want to read it again. As it stands, the message was good, and only a few names to mis-pronounce. In other children's books about dinosaurs, or English books with Spanish words, I have seen pronunciation guides to assist the reader, and that would have been appreciated here.
We made a trip to the library last night to switch out books. Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas is one we came away with. This book is the story of a couple of pigs who make a list of items to buy in order to make Christmas happy, but then are confronted with Angel Pig, who tells them they can have fun without having to buy a bunch of things. Unfortunately, Angel Pig basically told them they could be happy just making things from stuff they had lying around the house. While I suppose this is better then they buying frenzy they were planning, it didn't really give me any warm fuzzys about what Christmas should really be about. Not a bad story, but I would recommend anyone go out of their way to find this one.
Back when we had one child, we were out one Saturday morning doing some garage sale-ing. We came across a big bin of kids books. I have come across bins like this before but usually pass them up because they have nothing but pulp (e.g. Barbie books and the latest Disney cartoon adapted for a children's book). This bin was different. This appeared to be a bin of books that belonged to a former elementary school teacher. All of the books in the bin were labeled with black permanent marker: "P. Smith." And almost every book in the bin looked like it belonged in an elementary school classroom. This was such a fantastic find, and has been the basis for our book collection ever since.
A Cold Winter's Good Knight was another children's book picked up at the library. I don't know if it was picked because my wife or the girls thought it was a Christmas book or if it just looked interesting. I suspect the cover had Christmas appeal, but the book isn't about Christmas at all. This book is about a knight teaching three little dragons good manners. Nothing really remarkable, but the girls enjoyed it. One of the three dragons is a girl, which is always very important in my house. The four-year-old was sure to point this out. This book wasn't bad, but mostly unremarkable.
Little Bear has been floating around our house for years. We have read it several times. The book we have is a 1957 version, and I am constantly surprised when my girls pick this book. We have a lot of children's books to choose from and most don't look as worn, dated, and faded as this book. It is a testament to its quality that it continues to be picked up despite the flashier choices available. It was selected by my six-year-old for a bedtime book. I had the six-year-old on one side and the four-year-old on the other while I read the book. The text, which is incredibly simple, moved the ten-year-old from the other side of the room to listen and look at the pictures.
This book was picked by my four-year-old daughter for her bedtime story. I was afraid it was going to be another cheesy Christmas book. Part of my concern came from the Scholastic label down at the bottom of the book (not seen in the attached photo). I realize Scholastic has been instrumental at distributing some great books over the years, but there is something about the label that makes me think of sterilized grade-school text books.
I finished this book yesterday. This is the second book in the Artemis Fowl series. I thought it was great. I listened to the book, and I knew it was a good one because I couldn't wait to get back into the car to continue listening. As I discussed 
I consumed