The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice and The Magician Next Door, Rachel Chivers Khoo ( paperback Feb 2024)
£7.99
A beautifully illustrated and magical classic about the power of wishes for readers aged 7-10 "A story full of wishes and a big dollop of magic." Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear "Ideal for newly confident readers." I'm often asked to recommend books for young Harry Potter fans and this sweet, funny fantasy adventure with age-appropriate peril is perfect. If you're moving up from Isadora Moon, or enjoy Loki, this is great!
The Wishkeeper's Apprentice
When Felix makes a very special wish, he doesn't expect to be offered a job as an apprentice to wishkeeper Rupus Beewinkle. Now Felix must save the town's wishes from the wishsnatcher, who wants to destroy hopes and dreams everywhere.
The Magician Next Door
Late one night a flying house crash-lands in ten-year-old Callie's garden in Northern Ireland. It is the home of magician Winnifred and all of her magical artefacts.
Winnifred asks for Callie's help finding her lost Wanderdust – until she realizes it is Callie's sadness that is causing her malfunctioning magic. With Winnifred's most precious magical possessions at risk from malicious fairies and dangerous giants, can Callie and her friend Sam find the Wanderdust in time to save the magician?
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A New Dream, Nigel Tilson and William Cherry ( paperback)
£17.00
The story of Northern Ireland’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 journey
This is the ultimate underdog story: the story of a team who were resigned to operating in the backwaters of women’s international football before an inspirational figure instilled belief and passion in them. Players who had pulled on the green jersey year upon year, campaign after campaign, never dreamt they could reach the heights of appearing at a major tournament. That was until Kenny Shiels came along and sparked a new dream. He was a coach who had been there and done that in several countries, winning plenty of trophies along the way. Shiels had successfully managed a Northern Ireland international boys’ team in the past but he was keen to bring his know-how to the senior international stage. The veteran manager immediately set about reinvigorating the experienced players in the squad which he inherited - and introducing younger players who could step up to a higher level. He found a blend that worked. And he moulded a togetherness which players often describe as “one big family’. Flanked by his son Dean, goalkeeping coach Dwayne Nelson and a strong backroom team, he instilled a hunger and drive that led to a maiden appearance at a major tournament. Through words and the brilliant pictures of William Cherry this book charts, in chronological order, Northern Ireland’s incredible journey to UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 - often against the odds - and the part the senior women’s team played in the record-breaking tournament in Englan
After Dad, Claire Shiells (Paperback Sept 2022)
£9.99
A bittersweet love story exploring why good people sometimes do bad things... Millie Malone, a spirited, thirty-something journalist returns home to Northern Ireland after a life-changing decision leaves her London life in ruins. A family reunion soon unravels, opening old wounds and igniting new grievances regarding the murder of her father by the IRA decades earlier.Retreating to the family cottage in Donegal, Millie soon meets Finn McFall, a fisherman originally from west Belfast, who loves to paint and recite Irish poetry. In the new modern Ireland, Millie believes religion is no longer a barrier for love. But she soon finds home is a place still struggling with a fragile peace and simmering sectarianism.
As events unfold, Millie is forced to decide between love and loyalty, eventually having to ask herself the ultimate question: can love really conquer all?
Alone, Barry Falls ( paperback 4 Mar 2021)
£7.99
Barry Falls is a NI based illustrator who brings his wonderful art and comic understanding of reading aloud to this book, it is full of humour, rhyme and joy.
There once was a boy called Billy McGill who lived by himself at the top of a hill. He spent every day in his house all alone for Billy McGill liked to be on his own. But life doesn't always turn out how you plan it...
One day Billy hears the squeak of a mouse - destroying his perfectly peaceful existence. So he gets a cat to catch the mouse. But the cat and the mouse make friends.
So he gets a dog to chase the cat. But they all play together too. So then he gets a bear...
then a tiger... and on it goes, until Billy's house is so filled with characters that he has to move out. Will he find that he still craves peace and quiet, or is it actually quite lovely to have company and friends?The brilliant second book from Barry Falls is a laugh-out-loud tale of growing chaos, with a lovely message about how it's good to have friends.
Bad Bridget : Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick (paperback Jan 2024)
£10.99
Bad Bridget : Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women,
Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was not a good place to be a woman. Among the wave of emigrants from Ireland to North America were many, many young women who travelled on their own, hoping for a better life. Some lived lives of quiet industry and piety.
Others quickly found themselves in trouble - bad trouble, and on an astonishing scale. Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, creators of the celebrated 'Bad Bridget' podcast, have unearthed a world in which Irish women actually outnumbered Irish men in prison, in which you could get locked up for 'stubbornness', and in which a serial killer called Lizzie Halliday was described by the New York Times as 'the worst woman on earth'. They reveal the social forces that bred this mayhem and dysfunction, through stories that are brilliantly strange, sometimes funny, and often moving.
From sex workers and thieves to kidnappers and killers, these Bridgets are young women who have gone from the frying pan of their impoverished homeland to the fire of vast North American cities. Bad Bridget is a masterpiece of social history and true crime, showing us a fascinating and previously unexplored world.
