Books that tackle difficult contemporary or global issues and books that are whimsical and funny are all competing for a major Irish award.

U2 have released their new single, ‘Ordinary Love’, written and recorded specifically for the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, via a lyric video.

It’s readers to the ready this month, as MS Ireland prepares to kick-start its annual Readathon.

Ten titles will compete for the 23rd Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards 2013, the most prestigious awards for children’s books.

Ireland’s top writers moved from the page to the stage in style to accept prizes at the 2012 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards at the RDS.

A supernatural thriller that brings past and present together to explain the complexity of brotherly love has become the first work to win the Children’s Book of the Year award and Children’s Choice accolade.

Here is a summary of each of the short-listed books.

LOOK out, JK Rowling, the next superstar of children’s literature may be about to emerge.

MOST people fondly remember their childhood books, and now children and adults alike can cast their vote for their favourite Bisto Children’s Book of the Year winner from the past two decades.

LEGENDARY author Roddy Doyle’s latest tale for young readers, an account of a futuristic Titanic voyage and an old Irish yarn about a warrior are among the treasured reads up for the Irish children’s book of the year award.

CHILDREN’S author Kate Thompson has clinched, for a record fourth time, the top prize in the Bisto Book of the Year awards.

Fionnuala Quinlan, Books Editor