The Knights and Bikes series burst into life as a gaming experience inspired by cult classic movies like The Goonies, charting the adventures of new friends Nessa and Demelza as they explore the coasts of Penfurzy in a 1980s Britain that’s strange and familiar all at once. Together with their pet goose and the less than fresh head of a long-dead knight, the girls form the Penfurzy Rebel Bicycle Club, set to solve any mystery that crosses their path.
Sonia O’Sullivan is one of Ireland’s greatest and most influential sports stars, and a role model to young girls and women of all ages who are drawn to participate in sport. Some of her most feted achievements include an inspirational performance that won her a gold medal in the 5000ms event at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, as well as her famous silver medal run in the 2000 Olympics in Athens. Her 2000m World Record, set in 1994, stood until 2017.
The Artemis Fowl series has taken the world by storm ever since the first instalment in the saga saw the eponymous Artemis and his manservant Butler kidnap Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance force (the LEPRecon unit to you and me), kickstarting a train of events that spanned countries, continents and even existential dimensions. Colfer has followed up the concluding title in his Artemis series, The Last Guardian, with a new saga focusing on his original protagonist’s younger brothers, Myles and Beckett.
Bringing a trilogy to a fitting and satisfying conclusion is a challenge for any writer but from the first page Catherine Doyle takes up that challenge with style and gusto. Fionn Boyle, her central protagonist, is the Storm Keeper of Arranmore, and he, like Doyle, is facing the challenge of his life. The Morrigan, the immensely powerful dark enchantress, has been resurrected, and the Island has been cut off from the outside world. With no prospect of help coming, Fionn must prepare to face her.
Ivy Elisabeth Mann is having a hell of a time, no pun intended, coping with the consequences of opening a literal rift in the space–time continuum that happens to be actively leaking dark matter in to the world at a rate of knots. Dark matter that happens to manifest itself as black magic. It’s hard being a teenager when the rent is due and the world is about to end.
Ben Brennan has made it through school in one piece and at seventeen is already on track for a glittering career. But there’s one thing that’s missing from his life. He’s never been in love. Being a gay teenager these days is supposed to be easier, especially after Ireland’s recent (in the book’s timeline) historic vote for marriage equality in 2015 – so why is he finding it so hard?
