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Review:
Arthur and the Minimoys by Luc Besson
Faber and Faber, 2005.
ISBN 0 571 22604 3 236 p.

Age: 9-12. Luc Besson, a film director, has written an engaging fantasy for younger readers. Arthur, the ten year old main character, has read about the Minimoys, a tribe of miniature people, in his grandfather’s notebooks. His grandfather has disappeared four years earlier and his grandmother is threatened with eviction. He has found a map and clues to the land of the Minimoys and decides to try and find his grandfather and a lost fortune of rubies. Shrinking to Minimoy size, Arthur meets the beautiful but mean Princess Selenia, fights the henchmen of the evil Maltazard and has many exciting adventures.

The book has an obvious bias toward action and characterisation that will translate well into the film adaptation starring Madonna and David Bowie. The henchmen ride mosquitoes, the heroes are carried along a river in a walnut; they wade through grass that is forest high and go over a waterfall in a drinking straw. There is an exciting aerial fight with the mosquitoes and laser swords are used in a bar fight.

Many of the ideas and themes in this book are familiar, like the Arthurian sword, however young readers should enjoy the allure of a 10 year old hero saving a race of tiny people and a film tie in will gain readers.

Pat Pledger

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