It's literary award/Booker fever time. All prizewinners, book judges, and readers, like Charles Lamb's lawyers, were children once - children who loved books at that - and a thriving young readership guarantees a thriving older reading generation. Each autumn the books, like leaves, come tumbling colourfully into the bookshops. My daughter Catherine (aged 7) and I (aged 45) have been adventuring. We've been picking and choosing from among over forty shiny new titles and there is certainly something for everyone among them.
Allie's Rabbit by Helen Dunmore (Mammoth, £3.99 in UK) is what my younger critic calls "real life" and it's expertly done. Allie has always wanted a rabbit. When Mum eventually agrees, Allie learns what responsibility is. Dunmore focuses on a different anxiety in each of the four chapters, anxieties which every young reader will identify with (and every adult will remember), especially where the popular, show-off kid in the school deliberately excludes Allie from her birthday invitations. This is a thoughtful and affirming book and Dunmore's writing is vivid and direct. Another easy-to-read book for the seven-year-old is Arthur McKeown's Battle of the Somme (Poolbeg, £3.99). It begins in September 1914 when Roy, a young married man from Ballymore, Co. Antrim, enlists. The human element is always to the fore: " `Don't worry, John,' said Roy, taking off his cap and tickling the little boy under the chin. `We'll all be home for Christmas.' " The story is told without adornment, and stark black-and-white illustrations add to the book's power. "None of the men from Ballymore returned to Ireland. They all died that morning in the Battle of the Somme". The book ends eighty years later with an Irish family from Dublin on holiday in France. The dad's grandfather was that Roy from Ballymore and on their way back to the ferry they stop by the Somme. "Bill and Jane walked away slowly. Jack and Patricia walked between their parents, saying nothing". It's an excellent history lesson, moving without being sentimental, and should appeal to any budding historian.
A challenging book for eight-to-nine-year-olds on an historical theme is Cora Harrison's The Drumshee Rebels (Wolfhound, £3.99), which vividly evokes rural Ireland on the brink of its War of Independence. The day-by-day account of twelve eventful days in the life of young Bridget McMahon and her family in Co Clare gives the story momentum. Cora Harrison, wisely, doesn't bother with textbook facts, but on an emotive level the book works extremely well - Bridget watching her father and neighbours train as IRA members secretly at midnight, or Bridget watching while the Black and Tans ransack her home "in an orgy of destruction". The rejection of violence in the closing pages, and the novel's final word, "America", signal new beginnings.
We only had to see Gordon Snell's title The Secret of the Circus (Poolbeg, £3.99) with its magical mixture and we were away. More adventures with Private Eyes Molly, Brendan and Dessy in Ballygandon. Goodies and baddies, the money-mad and the gold-hearted, mystery and excitement, jokes (What did the man say when they asked him how he liked his new jaguar? "I don't like it much, it growls a lot. I'm thinking of getting a car instead.") and a terrific plot proved the perfect combination. "Very, very, very exciting", was Missy's verdict. And what's more, the scheming property developers get their come-uppance.
Marita Conlon-McKenna, best known for social realism, has taken off in a totally new direction with In Deep Dark Wood (O'Brien, £4.99). From small-town Glenkilty by way of flying coats and shadow hounds to a world of giants and dragons may sound contrived, but Mia and Rory's weird and wonderful adventures entertain so effectively that the reader is drawn into a world of otherness and magic. Bella Blackwell, the witch next door who's both sinister and magnetic, is a memorable presence and Conlon-McKenna's richly inventive story is a liberating and enriching read.
Niall MacMonagle teaches English at Wesley College, Dublin