"Kids" Books

A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett. This is the sequel to The Wee Free Men, which I read just before this. Although the author says his intended audience in this series is younger readers (the main character is 9 in the first book and 11 in this one), that doesn't make them less fun for older readers. In fact, there doesn't seem to be much difference between these books and the author's other works for adults. I'm looking forward to the next one, which is just in at our library. Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer. First of all, Artemis was a goddess. This is not a dude's name, and shame on the author. Certain elements of this writer's style make it quite obvious that this is a children's book, and, although it isn't strictly a kid's book, it isn't as other-user-friendly as some. There is an overuse of fragments that is bothering me. It is close to spoken English, and many readers might not notice it, but I find it annoying. The characters have the unreality only available to characters in children's books and fantasy stories, but I'm still interested in the plot. On a side note, I just saw that Eragon has been made into a movie and is coming out around Christmas. (We only see about 4 commercials a year, so this is news to me.) I liked the book well enough, though I wouldn't recommend it without reservation. There really ought to be a bigger span of time between books and their movie versions, however.