Another book making the jump to graphic novel style is Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. It’s a great way to get into the Artemis stories, the young criminal genius once described as the anti-Harry Potter. There are a few cheapo GN versions out there: Artemis Fowl is done with maximum care and style. For more on Artemis Fowl, visit Eoin Colfer’s website.

“Eoin” is pronounced “Oh-wen”. I saw him speaking to about 300 people at Federation Square a little while back. He could talk for Ireland in the Olympics! Funny, too.

If you have heard, seen or read the news this week you will probably know about the assasination attempts on Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. Luckily, incredibly, both men survived.

So a new book, The Long Patrol, tracing Australia’s involvement with East Timor, is a timely one. It covers the turbulent times from World War 2, to invasion in 1975 by Indonesia, to independence in 1999 and beyond. If you want to know more about Australia’s near neighbour East Timor, The Long Patrol is exciting, clear and well worth looking at.

The author Richard Plunkett has done a great job in making a difficult subject clear. He has spoken to people who who there, and spent a lot of time reading and researching. There are some great maps and photos, too. The Long Patrol is a history book that will help a lot in making sense of today’s news.

Did you enjoy watching Brett Lee tearing through the Indian batsmen in the first one-day international at the Gabba yesterday? Good to watch but I wouldn’t like to be facing up from 22 yards–would you?

Brett Lee is a man of many parts. He make his living scaring the life out of opposition batsman. He has also recorded music, written books and, yikes!, designed clothing. He hates smoking, never eats McDonalds and really does eat seven Weetbix for breakfast!

Find out more about Brett Lee here.

PS, Welcome back to school.