Arthur and the Minimoys by Luc Besson, Ellen Sowchek, Ellen Sowchek (Translator)

From the Publisher

Deep underground, the Minimoys are waiting . . . for a champion.

Arthur's grandfather disappeared four years ago. All he left behind are his notebooks full of stories about the Minimoys, a miniature people who are all less than one inch tall!

But the Minimoys can't possibly be real . . . can they?

Ten-year-old Arthur is about to find out, as a hidden message catapults him on an adventure wilder than he had ever imagined. He'll face mosquito-riding soldiers, a malevolent wizard, giant centipedes, and one very independent princess . . . and along the way he might discover that the littlest heroes can make the biggest difference.

Publishers Weekly

French filmmaker Besson (La Femme Nikita) tries his hand at middle-grade fantasy; unfortunately, the results are thumbs-down. Half the book sets up the action: Arthur, 10, lives with his grandmother while his parents seek work elsewhere. His grandfather, an erstwhile anthropologist specializing in African tribes, disappeared nearly four years earlier. Grandma is out of money and a sinister developer with designs on her property is turning the screws. After antique dealers haul off Grandpa's artifacts (which they value at $300-but Grandma still winds up three dollars shy of what she needs to forestall eviction), Arthur finds clues that explain Grandpa's disappearance. One rather simplistic plot turn after another leads him to the Minimoys, a race of tiny people living in the garden. The pace picks up exponentially as Arthur joins the nasty but beautiful Princess Selenia in a mission to Necropolis, to seek his grandfather, his grandfather's treasure and to confront "M. the cursed," archenemy of the Minimoys. The action-adventure scenes feature some nice details (M.'s henchmen ride mosquitoes; the Minimoys attack them with a catapult that fires raisins) but loose threads and lapses in logic abound. One such thread, suggesting marriage between Arthur and Selenia, seems farfetched given his age and her malice. A sequel, Arthur and the Forbidden City (whose title suggests that the hero may finally get to Necropolis), is due this fall. Ages 8-12. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-A French film director tries his hand at fantasy for children. In order to save his grandparents' home from foreclosure and find his missing grandfather, Arthur magically enters the land of the Lilliputian Minimoys through the garden, where he falls in love with tiny Princess Selenia. Now Minimoy-sized, he travels with her and her younger brother towards Necropolis, the center of power for the evil Maltazard and the place where he believes his grandfather is a prisoner. The journey is perilous and replete with battles with the villain's henchmen, and the book ends with "our three heroes" facing new dangers on their way to Necropolis. The jacket blurb informs readers that there will be two films based on this book and its sequel. Indeed, the volume is full of situations that are likely to work more successfully on film than in print. The author informs readers about the characters' reactions and feelings rather than revealing them through the story, and sections of the book read almost like explanations of the characters to actors. Arthur shifts from being a very young-seeming 10-year-old to being in love with and wanting to marry the princess in a way that is not believable. The narrator's tone is condescending and there are asides that appear to be addressed to adult readers. With flat characters, pedestrian descriptions of the battles, and an ending that feels incomplete rather than cliff-hanging, this book will have trouble keeping an audience.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0060596236
  
• ISBN-13: 9780060596231
• Format: Hardcover, 219pp
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Pub. Date: May 2005
• Age Range: 9 to 12

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents