TERRY DEARY’S Pirate Tales series scores high again on the laughter scale with his latest book The Pirate Queen (A&C Black; €5.92), featuring our own feisty Grace O’Malley.

STRIKER BOY by Jonny Zucker (Frances Lincoln; €8.80). After a seven-year exile, David Cartwright and his son, Nat, return to England to settle in Lowerbury, close to their beloved Premiership club, Hatton Rangers.