Books for kids...
This very funny story dramatises the age-old conflict between parents and their toddlers who absolutely refuse to eat anything that could be classed as healthy.
Puppy Granville is so against healthy foods that he checks the treats he loves — ice cream, cakes, delicious desserts — to see if they contain any vegetables surreptitiously hidden.
His parents are in despair, until they have the bright idea of asking Granville to select a birthday present for his beloved grandad.
Grandad, who was part of the conspiracy, asks Granville to grow a present for him, hoping that observing the process might make him more willing to experiment with new tastes.
The family are taken aback by the results of Granville’s gardening, and wonder if they will ever succeed in converting him to healthy eating. Age 4+
The concluding book of the Dubh Linn trilogy is set in two versions of Dublin, one the modern city and the other, Dubh Linn, a city inhabited by faes, angels, and demonic forces.
Izzy Gregory, a girl with special powers, is now virtually alone in her struggle against Holly, who threatens to control all of Dubh Linn, having terrorised angels, demons, and especially the Aed Sidhe who might stand in her way.
Izzy sees danger on all sides and blames herself for the apparent death of Jinx, a wonderfully imagined character from another world.
Luckily for Izzy she can eventually lean on the support of two humans, Dylan and Clodagh, who though not armed with special powers, match her in bravery and guile.
The trilogy is an unrelentingly tense and brilliant fantasy, with fraught family relationships and eccentric and memorable beings.
The story switches seamlessly between Dublin and Dubh Linn, the Dublin twang sitting comfortably with the more intense pronouncements of Holly and her ilk.
Throughout shines the seemingly hopeless relationship between human Izzy and the extraordinary Jinx. An absolute tour de force. Age 12+
