the golden fish summer reading list (pt. 3)

since my last posting i tore through "three shadows" by former disney illustrator cyril pedrosa - wow! absolutely brilliant - exquisitely drawn, cleverly told, gripping, heartwarming and intelligent. i'll be going on and on about it in my next summer reading list posting!! right now i'm half way through "the great race" which is also really good. somewhat overtly pro-american in the way that american sports announcers are at international events, but you get past that pretty quickly because as well as being jampacked with good yarns, it's also a real adventure.
gardening was more-or-less front and centre today although i did bake a big cake and decorated it with lots and lots of different shaped sprinkles. that made the kid's day even better than it already was! so, here is today's group of five books on my summer reading list.

11. airman eoin colfer has tremendous credentials being the author of the artemis fowl series but with this the book that he himself describes as his “favourite book so far”, colfer melds all the best features of the count of monte cristo with with the wizardry and imagination of h.g.wells into an amazing adventure that sees a young irishman named connor wrongfully imprsioned for two years. in that time he designs and eventually builds a flying contraption with which he intends to escape.

12. desert danger i just finished this one today. it’s one of a series of books called the “my story” series, some of which are set in first and second world war theatres of operation. this one takes place in england and then north africa where the protagonist is a “sapper”, or the poor soul responsible for (among other things) planting and also for removing mines. part fictional narrative and part non-fiction, desert danger follows the experiences of one soldier from conscription to action. in its somewhat circumscribed laying bare of the hard life of a soldier, desert danger gives something of a sense of what it was like to be engaged in what was probably the most trying and physically demanding job in the ground forces, in one of the more inhospitable regions on earth.

13. pirate’s passage
a classic adventure yarn: “off the coast of nova scotia in 1952, fierce winds force a small boat into port. the boat's pilot, the eccentric captain charles johnson, takes up residence at the small inn run by jim and his mother. with each day, the captain's presence becomes more valuable to the family as they struggle to keep the inn open for business—and his background becomes more mysterious as jim discovers how much he knows about the lives and battles of the old-time pirates. who is this man whose compelling stories bring to life in such detail the day-to-day experience of sailing on a pirate ship?”

14. artemis fowl: the graphic novel the artemis fowl series took the world by storm - well the junior novel world - and so it is no surprise that a graphic novel version of the first title in the series should appear. it not only captures the essence and quality of the original title but actually enhances it in my opinion. nip over here to read more about the book and to see some pages from it as well.

15. amulet: book one~the stonekeeper
i picked up this book more by default than design as i was really after kibuishi’s masterwork “flight” which at the time was unavailable so i figured i’d look at something else of his. kazu kibuishi’s artwork is so clever and so refined it’s enough to just look at it never mind the story! have a wander over to his dedicated website to learn more about this book and especially about the work behind it.

the golden fish summer reading list part 1 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 2 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 4 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 5 can be viewed here.