The characters belong to Eoin Colfer, except Father Christmas. He is what a child I know called a leg end.



Child Development

Artemis was unsure how to raise his concerns about Beckett's mental abilities with his mother. He didn't want to distress her but he felt the issue had to be tackled. If Beckett did have problems then they needed to be addressed sooner rather than later; early intervention might make all the difference. The problem was that he had little idea of the normal developmental rate for a non-genius child. Eventually he thought he saw a way to drop it into general conversation.

"Mother, isn't Beckett a bit old to believe in Father Christmas?"

"Well, dear, you still believe in fairies."