i’m here for a week already, really fast. in the office today, and probably meet our boss from manila ’cause she’s around. weekend was busy with: cooking food, doing my laundry, going to the gym, taking pictures, went to MOA (same name as our MOA, it’s Mall of America hehe), and reading.
i’ve finished 2 children’s books recently. artemis fowl (eoin colfer), borrowed from anna. although i’ve heard many good things about this book, and it’s highly acclaimed as rival to rowling’s series, i only give it 3 out of 10 stars. 
the plot is fairly simple, and the storytelling is not as marvellously done for my liking. it’s the human world with unhuman characters like fairies and goblins. artemis, a young brilliant human, son of a crime lord, is in the middle of a secret operation (illegal) to bring back their lost family fortune. by doing so, he devised a plan to capture a fairy and ask golds for ransom. capturing a female fairy, captain short, seems to be too easy in the beginning, but things unfold unexpectedly as he found himself trap in his own plot. human, you don’t know what you’re dealing with.
second book is things hoped for by andrew clements. ‘bought this book from fullybooked before leaving home. it’s a sequel to things not seen. clements has become my favorite young adult book writer. it was written very very well and because i liked the first book, i was curious what happened to bobby from the first book. although some characters are from the original, bobby and alicia, the focus of the second book is gwen, a young musician living in new york with her grandfather. she’s just a typical girl, soon to enter university and working out on auditions to top music schools (julliards, etc..) when eventually her grandfather went missing. with only a week before her auditions, she has to manage living by herself and stop her uncle from disturbing their place as he’s eager on selling the house which he co-owned with gwen’s grandfather. she then met bobby (things not seen, trumpet player), also doing auditions in new york. they joined a few days of adventure, living in new york, finding out what happened to gwen’s grandfather, and spotted another invisible man. the mystery of gwen’s grandfather was revealed at the end, as gwen’s big audition came. the only bit i didn’t like in this book is the invisible stranger gwen and bobby met. it’s really out of place, and i think it was just added to have, at least, a connection with its prequel, things no seen.
