The O'Brien Press

A Spooktacular Place to Be is Úna Woods’ follow up to her popular Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire from last year. In the book, the Dublin vampire (does he have a name?) and his bat friend journey around Ireland in search of spookier places to live than his Dublin park. They hit all the spooky and haunted destinations across the country such as Newgrange, St Michans church, Fastnet Lighthouse and others, but do any of them feel as homely as his spooky and familiar old tree?

This is the third book in the series about Molly and Beth, the thirteen-year-old best friends and latterly step-sisters who travel back in time. Molly is worried that her dad – who is separated from her mum – is too lonely. He’s recently returned from Africa to be near his daughter and it’s tough for him living alone, especially compared to how happy Molly is in her new extended family of Beth and her dad (who’s in a relationship with Molly’s mum).

The story of the tenement houses on Henrietta Street in Dublin is one which will interest children in mid-upper primary school. For those children who are aware of the current issue of homelessness, it serves as a reminder of the ongoing nature of this societal issue. For those who are not, this story could be a catalyst for discussion and reflection.

Young fans of Irish author Erika McGann will be delighted with the second in the series of Cass and the Bubble Street Gang mysteries, Making Millions.

Cass, Lex and Nicholas are crime-fighting, mystery-solving detectives, and are also known as the Bubble Street gang. Together they are working on a new mission: Operation Catch the Wicked Writer. When the team find an old diary full of wicked deeds, they aim to find out who the diary belongs to, all while trying to overturn the harsh new rules of the Resident’s Association.

This cheerful board book introduces young readers to the very basics of gaelic football and hurling. Photos of equipment and athletes are shown on block-coloured backgrounds, with single word descriptions included to explain the pictures. We see helmets, hurleys, boots and balls. A team photo demonstrates the size of a GAA squad, while simple images explain the difference between a point and a goal.

Gallagher strikes again! Spies, like many of Gallagher’s other works, can be described as a thrilling, utterly delectable journey into the past. The reader is plunged head first out of the frying pan and into the fire from page one, and the fast-paced action-packed story continues from there.

Leon is an Initiate about to Rise as a warrior of the True Path tasked with taking a life to prove the worthiness of his own. In a world where civilization is crumbling and the Earth is all but destroyed, an alien species has dispatched messages to Earth vowing to rescue those deemed worthy to reach salvation on their home planet of Thule. But when Leon’s mission goes awry, he is left to fight against the odds, along with his Divvy Martha whose stories and knowledge of the world outside of the True Path cause him to question everything he has ever believed.

Sam Hannigan and the Last Dodo is the latest offering from author and illustrator Alan Nolan. Some readers will need no introduction to our heroine Sam, as this is the second full-length instalment of the Sam Hannigan series.

In the aftermath of the Great War, teams of pilots and navigators gather at Newfoundland to compete for Lord Northcliffe’s prize of £10,000 to the first aircraft that can make it across the Atlantic in a single crossing. Maggie, a young Irish girl living in Newfoundland, wishes to become an explorer, and passionately desires to fly. She becomes particularly invested in the flight of two British war veterans: John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.