Leprecons, trolls, and fairies, an unsupervised twelve-year-old, and criminal ambitions. Sound like a good combination? Well, it's not Harry Potter—much less involved, both in terms of plotting and character development, and meant for a slightly younger audience. It's not even Lemony Snicket, which aims for an even young crowd—but Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, delivers the same sort of fun. In the first, eponymous adventure, Fowl seeks out the fairy-folk in order to steal their gold and right his family's fortunes. This happens at the expense of Holly Short, the first female fairly member of the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance unit, whom he kidnaps. The LEPrecon rescue efforts include a tunneling dwarf, a troll, and temporarily stopping time, but are still no match for Fowl's genius.

This series, which began in 2001, has been extremely popular with tweens. I read it in an afternoon, with lots of lazy napping between chapters, and now I need to find book two in the series.