Stormclouds by Brian Gallagher

Review by The Mole

It's 1969 and the setting is Northern Ireland - Belfast to be more precise - amidst "the troubles". In fact, the marching season approaches and the violence will reach new heights culminating with troops on the streets of Britain policing and keeping the two factions apart. And amidst this children are growing up and trying to be "normal". Maeve, a Catholic and Nationalist by birth, has a friend called Emma. Emma, who joined the same running club as Maeve, is new in town with her family having just come from the USA in order for her father, a journalist, to report on what's happening in N. Ireland. Emma's brother, Dylan, has a friend called Sammy who is a Loyalist. All four children meet up and become friends. But Sammy is a Loyalist and Maeve, a Nationalist. Can they be friends together through thick and thin? Will their families permit them to try? And will children be immune from the forthcoming violence?

The story starts with a prologue that creates a terrifying scene of Maeve inside a house that is rapidly becoming a raging inferno. She needs to get out but the terror of the fire is only slightly greater than the terror of the mob on the street. The story then goes back to telling us how this scenario came about.

This an eye opener as to how the youngsters, who just wanted to get on with enjoying life, must have felt at these troubled times. We also get to see how some of the wives and girlfriends felt about the violence as well. It's a sad, terrifying tale that still has a relevance today around the world.

Once again "enjoyed" is certainly the wrong word but I am glad I read this book.

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - Children's Historical Fiction

Buy Stormclouds: New Friends. Old Differences. from Amazon

City of Fate by Nicola Pierce

Review by The Mole

23rd August 1942 and it's Yuri's 14th birthday. A beautiful Sunday afternoon that is cut short by the arrival of German bombers heralding the start of the fight for Stalingrad.

Retreating to the coal bunker as a makeshift air raid shelter Yuri, his mother and sister spend a fortnight trying to survive the aerial bombardment. At the end of the bombardment his sister is sick so his mother takes her, leaving Yuri to wait for his father, to get medical attention. And so Yuri finds himself, like thousands of other children, wandering Stalingrad alone.

Meanwhile Leo, Vlad, Anton and Misha are in their last year at school when their teacher is ordered to take them to be registered for the army. With little training and no weapons they are forced attack German forces in Stalingrad to assist in the defeat of the German army.

Two distinct story lines that you expect to intersect and somehow super heroes to emerge from it all. But that's not what this is about - it's about the plight of children during the fight for Stalingrad both as orphans and as young soldiers. But it's also more than that - we also learn about the plight of soldiers, the fear of the NKVD, the violence of the NKVD as well as the humanity behind many individual soldiers despite their being part of an army.

A very well told story that teaches us (yes, adults too) a little of what they all endured. The author's notes at the back explain the origins of the characters and their actions and also some of the staggeringly horrendous statistics. This book is not a history - it is a fiction, but a fiction based on fact that teaches the reader by osmosis.

An extremely well structured story that doesn't preach and doesn't cut corners either. Thoroughly enjoyable yet horrendous and moving.

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - Children's Historical Fiction

Missing Ellen by Natasha Mac a'Bhaird

review by Maryom

Ellen and Maggie have been friends since their first day at school, always there for each other, sharing everything, as close, if not closer, than sisters. But now Ellen is no longer there and Maggie is trying to make sense of what happened and of her feelings of loss and abandonment. To help her come to terms with them, she starts writing to Ellen, letters that will never be posted, but that help Maggie put into words things that she can't say to her family or friends.

Told alternately through Maggie's letters and a series of flashbacks, Missing Ellen is a story of friendship and loss. Told in the first person, it brings an immediacy to her feelings though for the sake of preserving the mystery of what has happened to Ellen, Maggie doesn't reveal everything at once.
It soon becomes apparent that Maggie and Ellen had been drifting apart for some time - while Maggie wanted to join in the school drama group, helping to make costumes, Ellen's idea of fun was getting drunk with her older boyfriend. And this was my only reservation with the book - that Maggie was a little too 'goodie goodie', Ellen so very, very bad and the moralistic attitude that if you're in the 'bad' category, then worse will befall you.
It's a great story though of friendship and growing up, and the strains that come with it. It's less cutting and not as dark as some 'real life' teen fiction so perhaps suitable for the younger end of the range and even pre-teens.

Maryom's review -  4 stars

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - teen fiction, 
 

Buy Missing Ellen from Amazon

SOS Lusitania by Kevin Kiely

Review by The Mole

When 13 year old Finbar Kennedy dreams of a ship sinking at sea he decides it's an omen that his dad, Jack Kennedy- the Staff Captain of the Lusitania, is in danger and so decides to run away from home, stow away on the Lusitania and protect him. Little did anyone know of the events that were to unfold when the Lusitana was making her return to Liverpool.

We all know of the fate of the Lusitania on that trip. Or do we? In this story for the younger reader Kiely unfolds that history for the reader. Sadly I have to admit that many of the facts he includes I was not aware of - but the historical notes in the rear of the book make it clear what was fact and what was fiction and I make no dispute. Some things, like a conspiracy theory, he speculates on and does not purport to be fact but other parts, like the carrying of arms for the war and gold for the Bank of England, he states as documented fact.

But lets not get carried away with the history, yes it's there but primarily this is a work of fiction to entertain the younger reader - something it will do in aces. It's a great story and it's told extremely well. When Finbar describes the ship and it's size from his perspective and not in feet, yards, football pitches or anything else,  I felt, for the first time, that I knew just how big such a ship actually was. And when Finbar sees New York for the first time... I really felt like I was seeing it through his eyes. Clearly this story, in which 1200 people will die, is not all happy and Kiely will bring a lump to the reader's throat more than once.

An excellent read for girls and boys alike. And I'm sure there are bits of history adults will meet for the first time too.

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - Children's Historical Fiction 10+

Buy SOS Lusitania from Amazon

...and the Blood Flowed Green by Alan Nolan

Review by The Mole

Marion ‘Mick’ Mulligan is a sci-fi writer but you are unlikely to have heard of him as he didn't sell many of his books. He was then abducted by aliens. Normal abductees are returned to where taken from but not Mick, he is dumped on a lawless planet where he makes friends with Crk-Tish-Crrrkkk and together with Runt, his robot friend, they try to get back to their home planets. Passing through many unlikely situations and several different planets they start their journey.
The whole story is told with a great deal of humour!

When I was a child I read a lot of comics: War comics; Superhero comics; Dandy, Beano, Victor, Valiant and all those. When I was a young man I saw an Army Territorial Reserve soldier reading a war comic, like those of my youth, which he assured me was 'a training manual'. So comics are gone to be replaced by the Graphic Novel to try to give them more acceptability - it's a shame it was felt that it was needed.

This was my first Graphic Novel and I haven't read a comic in many years now. The layout seems less random than when I was a kid and the inclusion of those 'information' pages on things connected with the story but not part of - like the adverts of old - was a format change. All in all I was thoroughly impressed with where the concept has gone to.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book with its humour and totally unrealistic but fantastical drawings and I'm sure kids will enjoy this immensely. I know that as a child I read comics extensively - never getting enough - and anything that gets kids reading has to be a good thing but not only reading - escaping - escapism is a great stress breaker and kids have always had stress.

I do remember comics going missing for a while as dad read them - and why not? It should still apply today and I'm sure that dads everywhere would enjoy this one.

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - Humour, Graphic Novel

Buy And the Blood Flowed Green (Murder Can be Fatal) from Amazon

Secrets and Shadows by Brian Gallagher

review by Maryom

When the German bombing raids on Liverpool reach an horrific intensity, Barry's mum decides he would be far safer sent to live with his Gran in Dublin. At first he finds it difficult to make new friends there and fit into the established pecking-order of playground bullies but then he makes friends with Grace who's also moved because her house was destroyed in a stray Luftwaffe raid of the North Strand, Dublin. Gradually Barry settles into his new life but used to Britain's fear of spies and the 'walls have ears' campaign, he begins to distrust his over-friendly sports teacher Mr Pawlek. He claims to be Polish but could he really be a German spy? No one else seems to doubt him, but Barry and Grace feel they should investigate....

Secrets and Shadows is an exciting children's wartime adventure with lots of factual details and historical snippets to give it a good feel of time and place but without over-shadowing the plot. It was very interesting to see WW2 from an Irish perspective - I'd never given a thought to the fact that Eire too suffered from the disruption of trade with the US despite being a neutral country and never realised Dublin was bombed - but mainly this is a good old-fashioned Famous Five style adventure. With the role of 'lead character' shared between Barry and Grace, this should be a book to appeal to both boys and girls and have them biting their nails as the story heads to a dramatic conclusion.

Maryom's review -  4.5 stars

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - war, adventure, 10+ children's fiction