This year’s selection of children’s books features stories with universal themes, cute dogs and reindeer, superb illustrations, and iconic Irish settings, says Emmet Arrigan

Celebrating quirky and offbeat films, the second Twisted Celluloid Film Festival takes place at Triskel Christchurch from May 15-18. Among the guests will be American director, Bret Wood, who will introduce the Irish premiere of his southern gothic movie, The Unwanted. He will also take part in a Q&A session after the screening.

They may scare you silly, but Irish horror movies should be taken seriously.

Words Alone: Yeats and his Inheritances, RF Foster, Oxford University Press, €22.95