On long journeys, an eye can spy only so much. Irish summer skies are often milky-grey, but even when the sun beats down the paperback is both refuge and escape, the bag of books vital holiday packing.
Anne Fine, Britain's children's laureate, recently complained that too many sub-standard, sloppily written children's books were being published. All the more reason, then, to seek out worthwhile books for reading in the shade or on rainy days. Every title reviewed here is well-written, recommended for different reasons and caters for eight-to14-year-olds. Find your child and find your book - the combination is everything.
Adam's Starling (O'Brien, £4.99) is Gillian Perdue's first book, and what an impressive debut! Nine-year-old Adam, an only child, looks in the mirror and sees "an even, ordinary face: blue eyes, brown hair cut nice and spiky at the back".
Dad works night shifts, Mam faces redundancy, hospitalised Grandad is in "cloud-cuckoo land" and Adam is being bullied at school. This book convincingly captures life's hassles. Perdue is exceptionally good on Adam's various relationships - with parents, cousin Danny, friends and foes.
"Ah, Adam! Grow up! Don't be such a baby," snaps Mam, and Adam does learn to cope with bullying and being dumped in a wheelie bin. Perdue's handling of the Adam/Grandad scenes are not only brilliant, they are also genuinely moving, and the starling plot is never allowed to become tweety-sweety. My nine-year-old thought it fantastic.
In Jessica Haggerthwaite: Witch Dispatcher (Bloomsbury £7.99 in UK) by Emma Barnes, Mrs Haggerthwaite's enthusiasm for all things witchy embarrasses her children Jessica and Midge and gardener-husband Tom, "the most down-to-earth man imaginable". The book is deliciously ridiculous, delightfully incredible and celebrates eccentricities big-time. Tim Archbold's superbly fluid line drawings match the lively words."For spells that work without a hitch call Mellandra Haggerthwaite Professional Witch!"
Plans go unexpectedly wrong and then unexpectedly right. The temporary separation of Mum and Dad casts a shadow, but this very assured and entertaining book ends on a happy high.
To America next and Joey Pigza Loses Control (Corgi Yearling £4.99 in UK) by Jack Gantos. Joey is sent to stay with his Grandma and Dad whom he hardly knows in Pittsburg, a place that never spelt glamour. This is a serious look at dysfunctional, working-class lives. Nicotine-patched Dad changes light bulbs and mops floors for a living and his idea of breakfast is a beer. Heavy-smoking Grandma with chronic emphysema gives Joey "a blueberry Pop-Tart plastered in white icing" for his breakfast. Joey, in special-ed school, wears med-patches too, for hyper-activity.
Yes, this does seem grimmer than grim, but young readers know from news reports, from big and small screens, that life, much and all as we might like it to be, isn't always comic. If there's one thing they know it's that life is unfair,m and Jack Gantos looks at life as it is. Mom's heart is in the right place: "You're my reason for living, breathing, and grinding my teeth." Gantos packs a few punches, but Pablo the dog, funny moments, baseball triumphs and a terrific bungee-jumping scene balance light with dark. Joey's voice throughout is direct - "there was one Joey for Mom and a different Joey for Dad". A memorable, absorbing, impressive book that ends with life, as it must, going on.
Robert Dunbar, with beard and famous red coat, is the Santa Claus of children's literature - all year round. In Skimming (O'Brien, £5.47), Dunbar gathers together a dozen stories by top Irish authors and there isn't a child anywhere who wouldn't find something of interest here: fairies, animals, bullying, mystery, rivalries. "Days never turn out like the pictures in your head," says Mary Leary in an Eoin Colfer story, and many of the stories here contain surprises.
There's an unashamedly daft story by Pat Boran in which an attempt to capture a spider causes a holiday home to fall down; Siobhβn Parkinson looks at girl-gang dynamics ("Rrrarrr!") and Carlo Gebler expertly combines past and present, folklore and naturalism in his ghost story.
To end, here's a challenge from Anne Fine's collection of short stories, Very Different (Mammoth £4.99 in UK), which in typical Fine fashion challenges stereotypes and explores sensitive issues such as teenage Gregory telling his parents that he's gay. In The Ship of Theseus: "Two angels stand at a fork in the road. They look exactly the same. So do the roads. But one leads off to heaven, and the other to hell. And though the angels are identical, one always tells the truth, and one always lies. You want to go to heaven. But you can only ask one question. And all an angel can reply is 'yes', or 'no'."
Now that should occupy little persons and some mams and dads. Choc-ice for the winner!
Niall MacMonagle teaches English at Wesley College, Dublin