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Ever wondered what the world would look like if you were six inches tall? Read these!
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
A brilliant criminal mastermind, and just 12 years old!
Fairies with machine guns are guarding the gold!
Review
Only 12 years old, Artemis Fowl is brilliant. Unfortunately, he
uses his intelligence to best effect as a criminal mastermind.
Artemis is determined to find gold - and lots of it, so that he can
restore the family fortunes. But in order to get to the gold, he
must deal with the fairies who protect it. Artemis lays his plans
with care but, even so, he runs into all kinds of difficulties when
he captures Captain Holly Short, a fairy in the LEPrecon Unit. The
unit wants Captain Holly back and they'll fight to get her. Artemis
has to keep his wits about him to stay ahead of the game! (8+)
Secret Passage
Holly unhooked a set of wings from their bracket. They were double
ovals, with a clunky motor. She moaned. Dragonflies. She hated that
model. Petrol engine, if you don't mind. And heavier than a pig
dipped in mud. Now the Hummingbird Z7, that was transport. Whisper
silent, with a satellite-bounced solar battery that would fly you
twice around the world. But there were budget cuts again. On her
wrist, the locator began to bleep. She was in range. Holly stepped
out of the pod and on to the landing bay. She was inside a
camouflaged mound of earth, commonly known as a fairy fort. Indeed,
the People used to live in these until they were driven deeper
underground. There wasn't much technology. Just a few external
monitors, and a self-destruct device should the bay be
discovered.
From 'Artemis Fowl' by Eoin Colfer. Text copyright © Eoin
Colfer 2001. Published in Viking 2001
Dipper's Island by Henrietta Branford
Messing about on the river - in miniature!
Baby birds go overboard - can Dipper rescue them?
Review
Dipper lives on a tiny island right in the middle of a stream
called Dockens. Dipper spends his days sailing in his boat, the
Damsel Fly, or fishing or swimming or playing on his tin whistle.
That is, when he's not busy helping his friends when things go
wrong. He rescues the baby birds that are huddled together in the
rabbit warren after their nest has been blown to bits by the wind,
and he helps Spout find his missing brother Trout. Each of these
four short stories tells of Dipper's acts of kindness within this
enchanting, small-scale watery world. (7+)
Secret Passage
A small brown person was looking at him from the bank. He had brown
skin, brown eyes, brown freckles and brown hair. If it hadn't been
for his green waistcoat and his large webbed feet, Dipper might not
even have noticed him sitting on the crisp dry mud on the edge of
Frogbit Pond. "Good day for a plunge," Dipper called from his leaf.
The small brown person on the bank shook his head. "You don't want
a splash?" Dipper enquired. "You got the feet for it." The small
person shook his head again. Dipper slid off his leaf and swam
across the pond from south to north. He swam back again from north
to south, climbed out, shook himself like a water dog and sat down.
"Dipper by name, Dipper by nature," he said. "That's me."
From 'Dipper's Island' by Henrietta Branford. Text copyright ©
Henrietta Branford 1999.
Published by Walker Books Ltd 1999.
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Tiny people living under the kitchen floorboards!
Everything they need is borrowed from the human beans!
Review
Pod, Homily, and their daughter Arrietty, live under the kitchen
floor. Everything they own is 'borrowed' from the 'humans beans'
that live upstairs, and they are protected by gates of all sorts
and sizes to keep the mice out. Their life is precarious and
depends on staying hidden from the humans above them. Terrible
things have happened to their relatives who have been 'seen'. But
Arrietty is restless. She hates the restriction of the gates, and
is determined to go upstairs. And when she does, she finds a whole
new, exciting world. But has Arrietty put her family's life in
danger? (10+)
Secret Passage
Arrietty had wandered through the open door into the sitting-room -
the fire had been lighted and the room looked bright and cosy.
Homily was proud of her sitting-room: the walls had been papered
with scraps of old letters out of waste-paper baskets, and Homily
had arranged the handwriting sideways in vertical stripes which ran
floor from ceiling. On the walls, repeated in various colours, hung
several portraits of Queen Victoria as a girl; these were postage
stamps, borrowed by Pod some years ago from the stamp-box on the
desk in the morning-room. There was a lacquer trinket-box, padded
inside and with the lid open which they used as a settle; and that
useful stand-by - a chest of drawers made of match-boxes. There was
round table with a red velvet cloth, which Pod had made from the
wooden bottom of a pill-box supported on the carved pedestal of a
knight from the chess-set.
From 'The Borrowers' by Mary Norton. Text copyright © Mary
Norton 1952.
Published in Puffin Books 1958.
The Little Grey Men by B.B.
The secret lives of the last gnomes in England!
A thirst for adventure leads to a dangerous quest!
Review
Dodder, Baldmoney, Cloudberry and Sneezewort are the last four
gnomes living in Britain. Their home is under an old oak tree by
the stream, and their friends are the kingfisher, the blue tit and
the other Stream People. The gnomes are happy with their life,
except for Clouldberry, who is restless and longs for adventure.
When he sets off to explore what lies beyond the Folly - the stream
that has been their home for so long - the others follow. The story
of their journey through the countryside describes a magical,
miniature world within our own real one. (9+)
Secret Passage
You must remember that Baldmoney and his brothers were (as far as I
know) the last gnomes left in England. Rather surprisingly, he was
extraordinarily like the pictures of gnomes in fairy books, even to
the pointed skin hat and long beard. He wore a short coat and
waistcoat of mouse-skin with a strip of snake-skin round his
middle; moleskin breeches tied in below the knee, but no shoes or
stockings. He had no need of these, for gnomes are hairy little
folk; in summer time they sometimes dispense with clothes
altogether. Their bodies are not naked like ours, but clothed in
long hair, and as to their feet, if you had not worn boots or shoes
since you were born, you would have need of them either.
From 'The Little Grey Men' by B.B. Text copyright © The Estate
of D. J. Watkins-Pitchford 1942.
Published by Oxford University Press 2001
The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett
An entire empire living in the threads of the Carpet!
Deadly warfare between the Tribes - on a tiny scale!
Review
All the Tribes of the Dumii Empire live in the Carpet. Each has
their allotted place but all come together every ten years to be
Counted. But then Fray comes sweeping across the carpet. All the
Tribes are in danger, especially when the power-hungry mouls set
out on a great adventure. Is it the end of the world as the Tribes
have always known it? From the capital of Ware to the wastelands
near Varnisholme in the far North, Terry Pratchett has created an
intricate Carpet Empire, and an hilarious story of warfare among
the threads. (11+)
Secret Passage
Gradually the Carpet changed colour again, from red to deep purple
and then dark blue. They camped under blue hairs, hunted the small
shelled creatures that dwelt in dust holes, and wondered if Jeopard
was as good as Brocando made out because if it was, it looked as
though they'd better stop eating and drinking right now so as to
leave room for the feasts they were going to have. The track began
to turn into a road, not a great white road like the Dumii built,
but a neatly laid track of thick planks on a bank of dust. On
either side, the hairs grew thinner, and Snibril noticed many
stumps. That was not all. No Munrung ever planted a seed. They
liked vegetables when they could get them, and knew what grew where
and which hairs dropped seeds that could be eaten, but except for
Pismire's private herb garden everything that grew around them grew
wild.
From 'The Carpet People' by Terry Pratchett. Text copyright ©
1971 by Colin Smythe Ltd and © 1992 by Terry and Lyn
Pratchett. Published by Corgi 1993. Reproduced by courtesy of Colin
Smythe Ltd.
