About the Author

Eoin Colfer was born and raised in Wexford, a seaside town in the south-east of Ireland. He began writing plays at an early age, forcing his unfortunate classmates to dress up as marauding Vikings when they would have preferred to be outdoors doing some real marauding. Browbeaten by constant encouragement from his family, Eoin continued to write as an adult. His first novel, Benny and Omar, was an instant bestseller in Ireland, and Artemis Fowl, his first book featuring the brilliant young anti-hero, was an immediate international bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and was winner of both the WH Smith 'People's Choice' Children's Book of the Year and of the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year.

Reviews

Fans of Irish author Colfer's Artemis Fowl will find this contemporary novel a real change of pace. Benny Shaw's passion is hurling (an Irish version of field hockey), and he's crushed when his father's job takes the family to North Africa for a year. Not only will he miss watching the All-Ireland Hurling Final, but he also has to deal with culture shock, from Tunisia's fierce heat to scorpions to a classroom run by a pair of aging hippies named Harmony and Bob (who say things like "remember, positive emotions only" and delight in group hugs). Benny slips over the wall of the company's gated compound one day and strikes up a friendship with Omar, an orphan whose only English comes from watching pirated TV (e.g., "Night, John Boy"). The two bounce from one scrape to the next, and Benny learns a lesson about family loyalty when his friend's devotion to his institutionalized sister sparks a climactic finale, with the two on the lam from the law. Colfer smoothly layers adventure, moments of poignancy and subtle social commentary, and his comic timing is pitch-perfect (at the airport, "Georgie was sad wishing his Grandad farewell, Benny distraught over losing a steady source of fivers"). He studs the prose with Irish slang ("eejit," "the dole," "that yoke"). Readers will hope that the story's sequel, Benny and Babe, will cross the Atlantic soon. Ages 10-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Gr 5-9-As the hurling champion at Saint Jerome's school, Benny Shaw thinks he has a perfect life-until his parents move the family all the way to North Africa, a lifetime away from Ireland. They've never even heard of hurling in Tunisia. The village school is taught by feel-good hippies and filled with students actually bent on learning. There's no place for a sarcastic, self-centered kid like Benny. Then he meets Omar, a cheerful, scrappy boy surviving on his wits, and the two become fast friends, creating havoc and terrorizing everybody. But when Benny meets Omar's little sister, a drugged resident of the local mental farm, he realizes that his friend's life is more tragic than he had thought and realizes that he must help Omar rescue his sister. Suddenly Benny has to think of someone beside himself, and his ultimate change and personal growth make for a memorable story. At first it's hard to like Benny, even when he's trying to be decent, but Colfer does such a masterful job of mixing humor and tragedy with Benny's smart-alecky remarks that youngsters will like him in spite of themselves. This is a funny, fast-paced read, despite the Irish slang, that provides a wonderful glimpse into some very non-American worlds. -Linda Bindner, formerly at Truman State University, Kirksville, MO Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.