Children’s book reviews: Dickensian child poverty meets Victorian scientific advancement

Pet O’Connell rounds up a selection of the latest children’s books, featuring history, rhymes, and the surreal

The Last Boy by Eve McDonnell (Everything with Words, €10.50)

The death of 12-year-old George Brewster in February 1875 was statistically unremarkable among the huge numbers of child chimney sweep fatalities in Britain and Ireland over the course of two centuries.