Coming soon to a chimney near you!
From a lost penguin to a cocky wizard and a death-defying teenager, stories to delight even the most reluctant reader
ALL THE WAY HOME by Debi Gliori (Bloomsbury €18.20)
WHILE Mummy penguin is hunting for fish, Daddy stays in the crowded huddle of males, looking after their precious little egg (pictured below). But then hunger drives him to wander off — until a huge gust of wind whisks him from the South to the North Pole.
Lost and lonely, he encounters some very unusual creatures, from narwhals to arctic foxes, none of whom can help him find his way home.
Luckily, a reindeer takes him to the most northerly house in the world, where a kindly man with a white beard and red trousers knows exactly where he lives, and how to fly him back . . .
Penguins, snow and Father Christmas — what more could you want in your stocking?!
KATINKA’S TAIL by Judith Kerr
(HarperCollins €18.20) JUDITH Kerr’s Mog stories have enchanted generations of children but now she introduces a new feline character, Katinka, her own fluffy white cat with an unusual tabby tail. Katinka appears to live an ordinary life catching mice and climbing up the furniture, until one night Judith wakes up to see her being followed into the woods by all sorts of animals who are entranced by her newly-acquired sparkly, golden tail.
Together they all fly up to the stars and land on the moon . . . The next day she assumes it was a dream — but was it? This delightful, gentle story from the 94-yearold author sparkles with glitter and a real twist in the tail . . .
THE SNOWBEAR by Sean Taylor, llustrated by Claire Alexander
(Words & Pictures €16.80) THE first snowfall of winter is an invitation to rush out and build a snowman — or perhaps, a snowbear?
Flushed with the success of creating such a life-like animal, Iggy and Martina disobey their mother and go sledging down a steep, slippery hill until they end up in the dark woods — where unwelcome eyes watch them from behind a tree. They can’t escape back up the icy slope — but someone comes to their rescue.
A delightfully imaginative tale for wintry bedtime reading.
YOUNG FICTION FATHER CHRISTMAS AND ME by Matt Haig
(Canongate €14.99) IN THE final instalment of his Christmas trilogy, Haig’s heroine Amelia Wishart is living in Elfhelm with Father Christmas and his new wife but, as the only human child among the elves, her difference isolates her.
So when evil Father Vodol publishes a ‘fake news’ Daily Truth accusing her of being the enemy, she is tempted to run away. However, when the Easter Bunny (riled up by Vodol) launches an attack on Elfhelm, Amelia is the only one who can save the day — and Christmas. A subtle contemporary message about outsiders and hate underpins this energetic, funny adventure that has charm, warmth, and a sprinkle of Christmas magic.
NEVERMOOR by Jessica Townsend
(Orion €10.50) THIS debut fantasy adventure has been signed up for a major film and it’s easy to see why.
Morrigan Crow was born a ‘cursed child’ and as such is destined to die on her 11th birthday — an unwanted outsider blamed for every misfortune from stormy weather to accidents. But as her death day suddenly approaches — a year early — she is kidnapped by a mysterious stranger who whisks her away to Nevermoor where she must face four trials. Written with a wonderful deadpan humour and sharp dialogue, this is a must for the next Harry Potter generation. Age 9+
THE WIZARDS OF ONCE by Cressida Cowell
Age 8+ (Hodder €12.99) FROM the author of the How To Train Your Dragon series comes this first in a sparkling new fantasy series fizzing with evil, magic, Iron Age history, laugh-out-loud jokes and a huge cast of memorable characters.
Xar, a cocky young wizard, meets Wish, daughter of a warrior queen and a sworn enemy of the wizards. Together they are forced to undertake a quest, helped by a giant, an anxious raven and a heartbreakingly engaging sprite called Squeezjoos (who you’ll want to take home). Cowell is a superb writer and uses words like a magician. Terrific stuff.
DOG by Andy Mulligan
(Pushkin €8.99) TOM’S mum has left home and he’s being bullied at his smart new school so to cheer him up his hard-up dad finds him a dog, Spider, the unwanted runt of a litter.
But Spider’s puppy-ish boisterousness leads them both into trouble and the little dog runs away, leaving Tom heartbroken. Spider meets a succession of wild animals who offer both good advice and malicious warnings — Mulligan doesn’t duck the cruelty of the natural world and there are some pretty tear-jerking scenes. The journey to reunite pet and boy turns into a tense thriller, narrated by Spider, in which the bonds of love and need triumph over all barriers, physical and emotional. Age 9+
TEENAGE A SKINFUL OF SHADOWS by Frances Hardinge
(Macmillan €13.50) AS THE English Civil War rages, Makepeace, a young orphaned girl, is claimed as the illegitimate child of the aristocratic Sir Peter Fellmotte. But the Royalist Fellmottes have a secret — they devour the ghosts of their ancestors to keep the bloodline alive and they want Makepeace only as a vessel to host their evil spirits.
Her sole ally is a newly-discovered half-brother, James, who is lured over to the dark side, so Makepeace sets out to save him with the help of assorted querulous, internalised dead people and a ferocious spirit bear.
Hardinge’s The Lie Tree won the Costa Book Of The Year and this thrilling next book confirms her extraordinary talent as a writer of blackly comic historical and supernatural fiction.
A JIGSAW OF FIRE AND STARS by Yaba Badoe
(Zephyr €15.40) THIS hugely ambitious debut by filmmaker Badoe tackles contemporary concerns of people smuggling and sex-trafficking while conjuring an ageless world of spirits and mystical powers.
Fourteen-year-old Sante performs with a circus troupe who live ‘off-grid’, but her background torments her in dreams: as a baby she was found washed up from the sea in a chest full of treasure, apparently the sole survivor of a shipwrecked migrant boat.
When the voices of the dead call to be avenged, Sante is driven to discover the truth by confronting a ruthless gang. A blend of magical realism and brutality, this is a powerful and original novel.
PIGLETTES by Clementine Beauvais (Pushkin €11.20)
FOR the past two years, 15-yearold Mireille has topped the Pig Pageant, the appallingly cruel online vote for the ugliest girl in her school — but this year she has come third. Already embittered by the fact her birth father, a philosophy professor married to France’s President, does not acknowledge her, she vents her frustration on her long-suffering mother and kind, patient stepfather.