The Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Eoin Colfer

©2002

277 Pages

Young Adult

Summary

The second Artmeis Fowl book almost completely switches gears from the first. Instead of Artemis being the bad guy, he is not turned into the LEPs one last chance for help. When the LEP are ambused by goblins with banned technology, Holly immediately suspects that Artemis Fowl is the one to blame. Mean while, Artemis has just discovered that his father is alive and is probably being held by the Russian Mofia. On his way to rescue his father, he is kidnapped by the LEP and taken under ground. When he has been cleared from all involvement, he requisitions help from the LEP in his father's reasque attempt in exchange for his help with their goblin problem. When all fairy technology fails, Foaly is then thought to be the one in charge of the goblin uprising when in reality he is locked in his laboratory without access to any of his instruments. Only with the help of Mulch Diggums are Artemis, Butler, Holly, and Root able to break in to Opal Koboi's office building (the real mastermind behind the attack). With Foaly's help in secretly recording Cudgeon stating that he was only using Opal in order to take revenge on the LEP, the group was able to turn both Opal and the Goblin masses against their leader. Artemis gets to Russia and with the help of the LEP are able to rescue Artemis Fowl I.

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Star Girl

Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli

©2002

208 Pages

Young Adult

Summary:

Stargirl is a wonderful little novel about learning to accept and understand people for who they are. Leo seemed to have everything he wanted from life. He wasn't the most popular person in school, but he wasn't disliked either. Everything in his school had its place until stargirl arrived on his first day back from summer. Stargirl wasn't like other girls. She wore long, flowing dresses, didn't wear make-up, and carried around a ukulele which he played on a regular basis. She was weird. And so Leo couldn't understand why he couldn't stop thinking about her. Even through the curious things she did, somehow stargirl became the most popular girl in school. Everyone liked her and Leo realized that he did too. However, everything changed when she was made a cheer leader and started cheering for the other team. You see, stargirl doesn't just cheer for one person, she cheers for everyone. She wants to make everyone happy and she wants everyone to succeed. This becomes a problem when the entire school turns against her for the things she says in support of the opponent. Leo finds out what it feels like to be despised when he winds up as Mr. stargirl and is therefore hated by the whole school. Leo understands that the only way to get his old life back is to sever all ties with stargirl. When she stops showing up for school, he begins to wonder if he did the right thing. Years later, he is still not sure.

I didn't really think that I was going to like this book. I had heard that it was a really girly book and that has never really been my thing. I was surprised to learn that the book was actually told from the point of view from a book

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American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese

Gene Luen Yang

©2008

240 Pages

Young Adult

Summary

American Born Chinese is a graphic novel that follows the tales of three different individuals. The main story is that of Jin, a Chinese boy that just wants to fit in. Born in the US, Jin speaks perfect English and is more than familiar with American customs. However, he sees himself as being different because of the prejudices of the other school kids. This story is accompanied by the tales of the Monkey King and Danny, neither of whom are comfortable with the way they are. Danny is plagued by his Chinese cousin who is the epitome of every Chinese stereotype. Danny wants nothing more that to be rid of his shame but no matter how hard he tries he can never seem to escape his predicament. The monkey King was not content with being so small and so grew to the size of a man. Each of the last two stories' resolutions were meant as a lesson for Jin and how his heritage is nothing to be ashamed of.

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