Children’s book reviews: Doomsday tales of growing up in Ireland leaves tails wagging

Though the prospect of his parents’ reaction to his first-ever detention is truly terrifying for the nerdy sixth-class pupil who was never before in trouble at school, it’s about to be relegated right down his list of alarming things to worry about.

For a start, outside the classroom window stands the sinister Mr Kilroe, older than anyone can remember and reputed to have once killed a person. 

Then there’s the not-so-small matter of the hulking great elk-like beast with jagged antlers, red eyes, and a face pointed into a long, sharp beak. 

This shape-shifting monster appears to have arrived from another time and place, through an archway outside the school building.

Boys being boys, Conan and the three fellow pupils — with whom he is in detention following a brawl in the school toilets — decide their best course of action is to follow the monstrous beast as it enters Mr Kilroe’s crumbling mansion.

However, there’s another fear almost as cripplingly petrifying for Conan as all of the above threats, and that’s the spine-chilling spectre of rejection by his peers.

On the brink of their teens, Conan is still a goofy kid — an only child who stays in his bedroom, his head stuck in a fantasy world of dragons — while his erstwhile best friend Jack is trying hard to shake off his un-cool companion and instead curry favour with local delinquents by breaking every rule in the book before reaching secondary school.

Swotty posh boy Yash and the solidly-decent Jerry make up the rest of the detention group who find themselves in the unlikely position of battling slavering hell hounds and dark forces from Irish mythology in order to avert a doomsday scenario — all, of course, without telling their parents.

As national school pupils in need of assistance when facing fearsome demons, who you gonna call on? An elderly little librarian called Bernie, obviously. 

And alongside her among the forces of good are none other than the shape-shifting monster, who turns out to be a friendly, softly-spoken Gaeilgeoir, plus the boys’ perceptive and long-suffering schoolteacher, Ms Murphy.

It may come as little surprise at this point to learn that Kevin Moran, Mayo author of The Doomsday Club, is neither a famous dual-code footballer or the newly-minted minister of state of the same name, but in fact a primary school teacher.

Whether informed by his teaching experience or not, Moran’s gripping yarn is spun from Irish language and legend but set in modern-day Dublin and interwoven with empathetic insights into the misery suffered by youngsters who crave but cannot attain friendship, along with the folly of those who reject it in their misguided attempts to appear ‘cool’.

Let’s Play Rugby by Gordon D’Arcy and Paul Howard (Little Island, €11.99)

Warm up with star jumps and jogging on the spot, then it’s time to start the match. 

“You’ve got the ball in your hands. Now swing your leg as high as you can! Great kick — game on.”

There’s trouble ahead though. The opposing No 8 has caught the ball now; he’s huge and known as the ‘Beast’.

“Let’s get ready to tackle him,” advise this picture book’s personal coaches, former Leinster and Ireland star Gordon D’Arcy, and Paul Howard of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly fame.

“Let’s get ready to run away and let him keep the ball” might be safer advice when faced with such a colossus, but “Remember,” the coaches counsel, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. 

Tough tackling ensues and the No 8 is upended, but now it’s scrum time. Next a line-out and “you’re going to have to jump higher than everyone to catch the ball”.

Released to coincide with heightened interest inspired by the Six Nations, this hands-on picture book, boldly illustrated by Ashwin Chacko, encourages readers aged four-plus to give the game a go and tackle rugby one small step at a time.

The Lost Dogs by Patricia Forde (Uclan, €9.30)

There’s nothing like a lost dog story to pull at the heartstrings. Look no further than the plethora of missing pet pages on social media to appreciate the emotional impact the sudden disappearance of a four-legged friend can have on its human family.

The depth of anguish felt by distraught owners is matched only by their joy if and when they are reunited with their canine companion, but what of the dog’s own feelings during their absence from home?

Laureate na nÓg Patricia Forde creates three distinctive central canine characters who each react in different ways to finding themselves homeless, forming a strong bond of friendship between them along the way.

Luna the Labrador, narrator of the tale, is a worrier by nature and already a bundle of nerves before becoming separated from her family following a house move.

Devoted to her young owner Charlie, she frets about how he will manage without her and deals with her stressful situation by making mental to-do lists.

Cocker spaniel Bella has lost her memory after being thrown from a car and as a consequence has little recollection of the family to whom she was once a much-loved pet. 

And high-energy Eddie, a wisecracking terrier and teller of terrible jokes, remains irrepressibly optimistic despite the death of his owner and the prospect of life in the dog pound in which the trio are now incarcerated.

The three become firm friends while in the pound, which, instead of being a place of shelter where lost dogs are kept until their owners come to retrieve them, is subject to a reign of terror under corrupt warden Mrs Gizzard.

Channelling Cruella de Vil vibes, Gizzard is interested not in caring for the strays but in using them for profit. 

When Luna’s family make a phone call to the pound, the dog is dismayed to hear her owners being informed that no Labrador has been found.

The three friends make it their business to escape, only to discover that life on the run is no picnic either, especially with Gizzard on their tails. 

With no food and no direction home, they must rely on their wits — and each other — in order to survive.

Forde’s readers are several generations too young to remember Lassie Come Home or The Incredible Journey, but the notion of animals engaging in an arduous quest to return home to their humans remains compelling and her story, illustrated by James Brown, is a heartfelt one of happiness lost and found.