Children's books review: Sports rivalries, journey of self discovery, and a haunting Wolfling

Irish Examiner

5 hours ago

Féile by Emma Larkin (O'Brien Press, €9.99)
Féile is in full swing and for the first time, the Power twins Aoife and Aidan are playing on different football teams.
Their twin telepathy was previously at the heart of the Droichead Beag team but at U14 level, the siblings have had to part company — Aoife joining new combined LGFA side Droichead/Gorman.
With the Droichead side depleted, the arrival in the village of talented all-rounder Dayo — whose parents came to Ireland from Nigeria — is a welcome boost for Aidan and his team-mates.
His twin, meanwhile, is appointed captain of Droichead/Gorman ladies but must contend with sulky team-mate Ellie, who appears unwilling to abandon the fierce rivalry between her own Gorman team and Droichead — despite now playing on the same side.
Both boys' and girls' sides win their county finals and are heading for the National Féile, with the chance to meet the country's top teams, or perhaps those from London or New York.
Droichead have not reached the Féile finals since the twins' estranged uncle Eamon captained the side, before leaving for America upon finishing his Leaving Certificate.
That was nearly 20 years ago and Eamon has not returned, initially due to his undocumented status, and latterly having settled and married, with his children never having met their family back in Ireland.
Family matters are pushed to the back of the twins' minds however, as the end of June approaches and Droichead's history-making Féile double bid puts both boys' and girls' teams in the spotlight.
As in her two previous Twin Power titles, Cork native Emma Larkin — herself a GAA coach — plays her part in levelling the playing field for girls in sporting fiction.
Here, in addition to affording the football achievements of Aidan and Aoife equal status, she references the GAA's One Club model as both teams travel together to Féile on one bus and receive parity of treatment.
Larkin, whose writing is inspired by her maternal grandmother Maureen Cashman, a member of Cork's All-Ireland Camogie Championship treble-winning team of 1939-1941, adds a nice touch by giving the Power twins' Nana a footballing back-story.
A University College Cork and Coláiste Muire Crosshaven past student now living in Kerry, Larkin threads a tale of family intrigue through the sporting action — capturing the essence of grassroots GAA and parochial rivalries in a story perfectly pitched for both boys and girls aged nine to teens.
The Brightest Star by Meg Grehan (Little Island, €10.99)
The move from primary to secondary school is a milestone in anyone's life, the anticipation and excitement often being accompanied by uncertainty at what lies ahead.
With the first glimpse of impending adulthood coming into view and the prospect of forming new friendships, it is a time both of change and reflection, where self-identity can come under scrutiny.
For Stevie, co-narrator of Donegal-based Meg Grehan's fifth verse novel, there are challenges ahead and anxieties to be managed, but one thing she is certain of is how she feels about Chloe.
If maths lessons leave her in a state of deep confusion, Stevie knows she loves the 'fizzy' feeling she gets when she's with Chloe, as their relationship begins to develop from childhood friendship to something more.
When they join the afterschool LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Club, the pair find a place where they belong and feel comfortable, but there is still something troubling Stevie.
Their other close friend, Andrew, is becoming distant and the ties that bound the trio together at national school look set to unravel.
While Chloe and Stevie find liberation at the Rainbow Club, Andrew is hesitant about attending, even as an ally.
How should he introduce himself to club members, for a start, when he hasn't yet figured out who he is?
Stevie, in the end, sums it up best, and if she cannot provide Andrew with answers, she can at least reassure him that there is no need for him to provide them either.
'You don't need to know anything. We're thirteen. We don't need to be sure of anything. We just need to feel,' she says. 'I'm still figuring out what it all means.'
Though Andrew is the second narrator in this follow-up to The Deepest Breath, his is a quieter, subsidiary voice, eclipsed by Stevie's internal monologues and reflective of his uncertainty in his sexuality — contrasting with her growing confidence in her relationship with Chloe.
Their different paths towards discovery represent one of the chief strengths of this warm embrace of a novel which 'isn't about knowing everything, or understanding everything. Even yourself. It's about friendship. It's about having a safe space to figure it all out'.
The Nightmare Club: The Wolfling's Bite by Annie Graves/Oisín McGann, illustrated by Glenn McElhinney (Little Island, €10.15)
Annie Graves is a 12-year-old orphan who lives in Glasnevin with her pet toad Much Misunderstood and black kitten Hugh Shalby Nameless.
She is the host of The Nightmare Club, tellers of spooky stories for the kind of sleepovers that rarely involve sleep.
The tale of young Jessie and her seemingly cuddly toy Wolfling is enough to give any child nightmares, even if she has given her furry friend the innocuous name, 'Twinkle'.
The Wolfling is a robotic learning toy, designed to do tricks and copy words spoken by the child.
However, when Jessie's older brother Jonah searches online, he finds rumours suggesting Wolflings can move without being switched on and have been known to bite their owners.
'Don't let a Wolfling smell its owner's blood,' advises one internet source. 'Don't let it anywhere near meat after sunset', counsels another.
If that sounds like something straight out of a Gremlins movie, it also seems unlikely to Jonah — who dismisses the words of internet wisdom… until one night he hears a shriek.
Jessie has awoken from her pink princess bed, still clutching her beloved Twinkle, and holding her hand over her nose as blood seeps through her fingers.
Roger, one of Jessie's two pet rabbits, is deemed the culprit and swiftly banished. Bugs, the remaining bunny, is plainly petrified of something.
Now, big brothers can be quite perceptive about little sisters, and Jonah has a hunch that Jessie might possibly have been picking her nose prior to the savage attack.
Picking it until she made it bleed. Could his sister's nose represent 'meat' to a Wolfling?
Jessie and Jonah are about to find out as this short story, part of a Nightmare Club series, takes a surprisingly gruesome turn, considering its six-plus age guide.
Though its title gives a clue so unsubtle as to negate much of the plot's suspense, the slimness of this book and its copious illustrations should not be mistaken for indications of its suitability for beginner readers.