The Fowl Twins (Fowl Twins Series #1)

by Eoin Colfer

Overview

One week after their eleventh birthday, the Fowl twins--scientist Myles, and Beckett, the force of nature--are left in the care of house security (NANNI) for a single night. In that time they befriend a troll who has clawed his way through the earth's crust to the surface. Unfortunately for the troll, he is being chased by a nefarious nobleman and an interrogating nun, who both need the magical creature for their own gain, as well as a fairy-in-training who has been assigned to protect him. The boys and their new troll best friend escape and go on the run. Along the way they get shot at, kidnapped, buried, arrested, threatened, killed (temporarily), and discover that the strongest bond in the world is not the one forged by covalent electrons in adjacent atoms, but the one that exists between a pair of twins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368049108
Publisher:	Disney Press
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	Artemis Fowl Series: The Fowl Twins , #1
Sold by:	DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE -EBKS
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	569,098
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Eoin Colfer is the author of the New York Times best-selling Artemis Fowl series, which was adapted into a major motion picture from the Walt Disney Studios. He also wrote the critically acclaimed WARP trilogy, and many other titles for young readers and adults, including Iron Man: The Gauntlet, Airman, Half Moon Investigations, Eoin Colfer's Legend of . . . books, The Wish List, Benny and Omar; and Benny and Babe. In 2014, he was named Ireland's laureate for children's literature. He lives with his wife and two sons in Dublin, Ireland, where he is working on the next Fowl twins novel. To learn more, visit www.eoincolfer.com. He is also on Twitter and Instagram @EoinColfer.

Hometown:

Wexford Town, County Wexford, Republic of Ireland

Date of Birth:

May 14, 1965

Place of Birth:

Waterford City, County Waterford, Republic of Ireland

Education:

Bachelor of Education, 1986; Education Diploma, 1987

Website:

http://www.eoincolfer.com

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/16/2019

Colfer’s clever spin-off of the Artemis Fowl series focuses on Artemis Fowl’s twin younger brothers—hyperintelligent Myles and near-feral Beckett, both 11. With their older sibling on Mars, the fraternal twins are dragged into a madcap adventure when they’re kidnapped by Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, a 150-year-old duke seeking the secret to immortality, which he believes rests in the venom of a diminutive troll that the twins are protecting. Sister Jeromina, a nun and agent of the secret organization ACRONYM, also has them in her sights. Meanwhile, Lower Elements Police Specialist Lazuli Heitz, a pixel (pixie-elf hybrid), seeks to rescue the imperiled troll—and the twins by extension. A globetrotting caper transpires as the myriad factions attempt to outwit, outsmart, escape, and double-cross one another. Colfer’s trademark tongue-in-cheek narrative voice is on full display, his characters existing in a preposterous balance between sincerity and absurdity, mad science, and technology. Though a working familiarity with the previous books is handy, this series opener is accessible and entertaining: the fast-paced plot, filled with unexpected betrayals, death-defying feats, and secret train cars, will appeal to Fowl readers established and new. Agent: Sophie Hicks, Sophie Hicks Agency. Ages 10–14. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2019

Gr 4–8–Based on the same Eurocentric adventure platform, The Fowl Twins transcends the original "Artemis Fowl" series. Welcome to a new level of zany ridiculousness with the warm-hearted interplay between Miles and Beckett, Artemis's now 11-year-old twin brothers, as they fight together with a fairy creature against an elderly Duke and an evil nun, two of the most hilarious supervillains of all time. As his characters chase each other across Western Europe, Colfer mocks predictable tropes with ingeniously unexpected turns made possible by wacky technological or magical marvels and astounding physical feats. The wry narrator's choice of metaphor and unique turns-of-phrase are as delightful as the action on the page. Masterful pacing includes complicated action sequences broken into different perspectives, with time sped up or slowed down to maximize both the reader's excitement and their ability to revel in Miles's cleverness, or to guess at Beckett's hidden talents. Kids familiar with European landmarks will be especially pleased at glimpses of Amsterdam, Verona, and the Irish Coast; Spanish-speakers will appreciate the nefarious nun's frequent exclamations. A handful of beloved characters from the original series make brief cameos. VERDICT Funnier and more appealing than its popular progenitor, this title is destined to become a favorite.—Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC

School Library Journal

★ 2019-07-14
With their big brother Artemis off to Mars, 11-year-old twins Myles and Beckett are swept up in a brangle with murderous humans and even more dangerous magical creatures.

Unsurprisingly, the fraternal Irish twins ultimately prove equal to the challenge—albeit with help from, Colfer as omniscient narrator admits early on, a "hugely improbable finale." Following the coincidental arrival on their island estate of two denizens of the subterranean fairy realm in the persons of a tiny but fearsome troll and a "hybrid" pixie-elf, or "pixel," police trainee, the youngest Fowls immediately find themselves in the sights of both Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, a ruthless aristocrat out to bag said troll for its immorality-conferring venom, and Sister Jeronima Gonzalez-Ramos de Zárate, black-ops "nunterrogation" and knife specialist for ACRONYM, an intergovernmental fairy-monitoring organization. Amid the ensuing whirl of captures, escapes, trickery, treachery, and gunfire (none of which proves fatal…or at least not permanently), the twins leverage their complementary differences to foil and exasperate both foes: Myles being an Artemis mini-me who has dressed in black suits since infancy and loves coming up with and then "Fowlsplaining" his genius-level schemes; and Beckett, ever eager to plunge into reckless action and nearly nonverbal in English but with an extraordinary gift for nonhuman tongues. In the end they emerge triumphant, though threatened with mind wipe if they ever interfere in fairy affairs again. Yeah, right. Human characters seem to be default white; "hybrid" is used to describe nonhuman characters of mixed heritage.

Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high tech, spectacular magic, and silly business. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews