Children’s books
“Once there was a farmer who had a wife called Beauty, a son called Goodwill and an old donkey called Jackson.” This introduction will immediately draw youngsters into a delightful, simple story.
Every market-day the farmer loads his panniers with all kinds of vegetables from carrots and corn to heavy pumpkins. But when the donkey becomes old he can no longer pull the heavy burden. The angry farmer pushes and shoves poor Jackson. It takes clever Goodwill to put things right.
With colourful illustrations this is a book to share for age three and upwards.
Sometime journal, sometime diary, The Hunger is an account of the Famine as experienced by Phyllis McCormack. She and her family suffer terribly, and only for her few pence earned as a servant in a landlord’s establishment they would have been completely desolate.
Her life is complicated by a relationship with the landlord’s son who is sympathetic to the nationalist cause, and by the fact her brother is an active rebel in the days leading up to the rebellion of 1848.
The author strives to educate the reader on the political situation, the hardship, and the major figures of that era — Peel, O’Connell, Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher. For age 10 and upwards.
When Aunt Bea decides to move her niece Eveny Cheval back to Carrefour, Louisiana, from her comfortable existence in New York, she sets in motion a rollercoaster of conflicting memories and emotions. Carrefour is a mysterious gated town where two dolls, Peregrine and Chloe, hold sway.
They use their special powers to benefit only themselves, but soon recognise that Eveny could be of great use to them. Eveny, who discovers some unpalatable things about her own family, is forced into making decisions that will affect all of Carrafour.
The world of Voodoo is authentically presented, but some relationships and character development less so. For age 14 and upwards.
