Need some literary advice

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter Greta wrote:
> Christmas is coming, and I'm looking for books to give my 8-year-
> old son.  He is a fairly advanced reader (has finished all five HP 
> books) who really likes the fantasy genre.

Definitely definitely go for the Lemony Snickets that were 
recommended earlier. They may appear to dark on your `browse 
through' but they aren't, they are really funny and cleverly 
written. They also spurred my (then 7 year old) son to extra 
activities, like his own spy stories which we peppered with Lemony 
Snicket style photos. Great fun. We also designed VFD t-shirts 
sporting the legend "Ask me about VFD", but I'm yet to get them run 
off. You'll have to read the series to find out what VFD might, and 
might not, stand for, and what constitutes a Lemony Snicket style 
photo.

So, now that you've brought them lets do two more series. I'd 
normally say these were beyond an eight year old, but if he can read 
OotP to himself, then they may not be. Firstly Philip Pullman's Dark 
Materials trilogy, and secondly Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books. 
The Pullman books are deep and fantastic, a good compliment to HP. 
They may be too dark and involved for his age though. The Artemis 
Fowl books are fabulous, really humorous fantasy with lots of modern 
technology and environmental concerns. For example, in the book the 
fairies have been driven underground by us human's abuse of the 
surface. Hence the fairy's police force is called the Lower Elements 
Police. One elite group within the LEP is reconnaissance. They're 
called "LEP recon" and use to wear green uniforms. That's where our 
word leprechaun comes from :-) Both sets have fantastic audio 
versions available which you could get from the library to make your 
`browse through' doubly fun.

Cheers,

Dumbledad

PS I'm not sure I can forgive Greta for starting Christmas talk in 
October.