'The final children’s books review of 2024'
It’s another week for the kids, the final children’s books review of 2024 and any book here would make a great Christmas gift, but before I get to the smallies’ list, three adult books just out would make great gifts. There’s the Waterford Whispers Annual 2024 (Gill €19.99) with its usual fiendish comedy, there’s Dave’s Bad Jokes (Gill €12.99) by Today Fm’s Dave Moore, with some of the worst jokes I’ve ever read! And for the clever folks there’s Lateral (Macmillan €17.99) by Tom Scott and David Bodycombe, asking 100 difficult quiz-type questions for sharp minds and quick thinkers.
By far the biggest kids’ book in the shops is Eanna ní Lamhna’s The Great Irish Biodiversity Book (Gill €24.99), a feast of a tome from Ireland’s best-known and much-loved wildlife expert, taking us on a trip from bogs to beaches, to woods to meadows in search of wildlife habitats, the critters who live in them and the birds who hang out there. It’s exquisite and Barry Fall’s illustrations are superb.
The Fairy Queen (Little Island/Skein Press €14.99) is written by Dublin-based poet and member of the Travelling community, Chrissy Donoghue Ward. It’s wondrously illustrated by Monika Mitkute and it tells the story of a greedy king and queen who demand gold from all their subjects in the land. Those who have no gold and who can’t afford to pay are thrown in jail. The king of the Travellers escapes to the woods and takes his people with him, but he can’t stay there forever and soon grows anxious to reclaim his people’s home.
Ireland’s Call by Paul O’Flynn (Gill €14.99) is for the younger rugby fans and sports fans in general, celebrating Irish sporting legends in the Six Nations campaign and their successes along the way. It’s written with reluctant readers in mind and is published under the guidelines of Dyslexia Ireland, so it’s a great book to get young boys, who only want to kick a ball, started on the books.
Lucy Kennedy continues her Friendship Fairies series with The Friendship Fairies Go to Paris (Gill €13.99), in which the young fairies end up in the city with their parents on a month-long exchange. But before long they realise that their exchange family’s pet octopus is missing. Who let it out? And how are the Fairies going to track down a fugitive octopus in the vastness of the City of Light? Illustrator Phillip Cullen really goes to town on the Parisian atmosphere and charm.
Poor Milly McCarthy can’t seem to get out of bed without being afflicted by some awful (and awfully funny) disaster, and this Christmas it’s no different. In Milly McCarthy and the Christmas Calamity by Leona Forde (Gill €9.99) Millie is selected as MC for her class’s Christmas Talent Show. You’d think it’s a simple enough task. But with Milly nothing is simple, and Scoil Eoin has never witnessed such pandemonium. Let’s just say it’s not a Silent Night! Karen Harte’s illustrations add to the chaotic comedy.
Fia and the Last Snow Deer by Eilish Fisher (Puffin €14.99) looks like one of this year’s classics for children. It’s a powerful story, set in prehistoric Ireland, of Fia and her snow deer, born under the same moon, and the magical prophesy that ties them together. Dermot Flynn’s lavish and evocative illustrations are the icing on this beautiful cake.
Nina Carbery’s Snow Pony Express (Gill €13.99) is the third book in her Rowan Tree Stables series of children’s storybooks and here Grace and Aaron are happy to see a snowstorm hit, because it means no school. But the snow persists and people are having trouble getting to the shops. Until Aaron comes up with the idea of the Snow Pony Express. With lovely illustrations from Nuno Alexandre Vieira.
Donncha O’Callaghan is writing books now, with a little help from Karen Owen and with illustrations from Jenny Taylor. In Disaster Dad: Chicken Chaos (Eriu €11.99) Finn and Emma’s mother travels to America for a week, leaving Dad in charge with a clear master plan. Yeah, right. The plan is accidentally destroyed and Dad has to think on his feet, a feat for which he is clearly unsuitable. Actually, he’s utterly incapable. But it makes for great kids’ comedy.
Finally, another huge book is Jackie McCann’s Ireland in Numbers (Gill €19.99). A quirky and original book, it’s packed with interesting facts about Ireland and its people, all told through the medium of numbers. Cover to cover illustrations from Dermot Flynn make it irresistible, and not just for the smallies. For example, the average age expectancy of Irish people during the famine was 21 years. In the last election, less than half of the electorate voted. Our power is fuelled by a whopping 86% fossil fuel. There are 180,000 horses in Ireland. The first population census took place 6,000 years ago in Iraq. Will I go on? I just love this book!
Finally, James Butler’s Crying Wolf (Little Island €10.99) is a teenage/YA novel about Joey, whose gangster stepfather had left town for more than a year, much to everyone’s relief. But now he’s back, and Joey is dragged back down towards the murky past he’s done so much to rise above. Tense, terse, a great story.
Footnotes
It’s time for Christmas markets in the towns and villages and how good would it be to support them when we’re thinking of Christmas gifts, instead of handing our hard-earned money over to the big retail multinationals? It’s not possible to list all of the markets, locations and dates here, but they’re easily found by keeping your ear to the ground.
If you want a slice of spectacular culture, Verdi’s tragic opera Rigoletto is running from Sunday December 1 to Saturday December 7, in the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin. It’s a heartbreaking story with a terrible twist; bring lots of tissues while you bathe in Verdi’s majestic genius and the Irish National Opera’s great musical talents. Tickets from irishnationalopera.ie.
Ballet Ireland are touring their Nutcracker Sweeties, a modern take on the Nutckracker Suite but with Tchaikovsky’s wonderful music remaining unchanged, throughout the country from till December 7. For tickets see balletireland.ie.