Putting the spotlight on the winners of 2023 Children's Books Ireland awards

A BOOK “firmly anchored in the landscape of this island”, Girls Who Slay Monsters reminds readers of ‘forgotten’ tales of Irish goddesses that are “forever etched into our hills and the valleys and the lakes and beaches; our mythic past is present in the everyday”.

Winner of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland book of the year award, announced last week, debut children’s author Ellen Ryan’s “daring tales of Ireland’s forgotten goddesses” is illustrated by Waterford-based Shona Shirley Macdonald and published by HarperCollins Ireland.

“This outstanding book brings oft-forgotten goddesses and heroes of Irish mythology out of the depths of an ancient past and into the reader’s present,” said the judges.

Ryan’s wonderfully rich [and well-researched] text and Macdonald’s sophisticated palate combine beautifully to create an innovative book that celebrates storytelling, curiosities, and female power.

Aimed at 9-12-year-olds, these re-imagined myths tell of the bravery and unbreakable bonds with nature of ‘forgotten’ female heroes of Irish legend. They include Éire, Ireland’s fierce namesake, Bé Binn, a giant who overcame her bullies, Badb, a gleefully gruesome death prophet, and Bé Mannair, a “gender-fluid spy who challenged an entire army”.

Ryan believes these women have become overlooked in favour of their male counterparts in centuries of oral and written storytelling, and set about starting to right the wrong.

“While many of us grew up learning about Greek and Norse myth, the Irish goddesses were an undiscovered secret,” she said.

“At my convent school, I was taught about two or three magical women from mysterious lands, but they were not described as goddesses, and I had no idea how warped these tales had become. Then, years later, I took a trip to Rathcroghan, an Irish archaeological site known as the ancient capital of Connacht, and learned the land there was linked with powerful goddesses.

I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been taught about these goddesses and felt something had been stolen from me. So, for many years after, I went digging through ancient Celtic texts and discovered a pantheon of exciting goddesses with brilliant abilities.

“But what I found most remarkable was that these women from thousands of years ago often faced the kind of challenges we experience today. Their stories are relevant and inspiring, yet girls everywhere have been stripped of the Celtic goddesses - an important part of our shared female heritage.”

Girls Who Slay Monsters won both the KPMG Book of the Year Award and the KPMG Junior Juries’ Award, voted on by thousands of young readers across Ireland.

The awards, with a total prize fund of €16,000, were announced as part of International Literature Festival Dublin and also included the Honour Award for Fiction, which went to The Boy Who Lost His Spark by Maggie O’Farrell, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Tarrazzini (Walker Books).

The story of Jem and his encounters with a mischievous little creature called a nouka is a “refreshingly quiet tale about the necessity of having a little bit of magic in life”, said the judges.

The Honour Award for Illustration went to The Wilderness, written and illustrated by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books), a picture book that tells the story of the Vasylenko family as they brave the wilds in search of adventure. All family members, that is, except young Oktober, who prefers to find his adventures in the safety of books, until one day he discovers that maybe the Wilderness isn’t as monstrous as he thought.

“This original tale engages with the importance of dealing with your feelings and shows the transformative potential of a different point of view,” said the judges.

The Eilís Dillon Award for best debut went to The Book Of Secrets by Alex Dunne (O’Brien Press), described by the judges as a “fast-paced story inspired by Irish myth and folklore [that] brilliantly intertwines the real and the magical”.

Winner of the Judges’ Special Award was An Slipéar Gloine, a new Irish-language take on the story of Cinderella by debut children’s author Fearghas Mac Lochlainn, illustrated by Paddy Donnelly (Futa Fata).

“Fantastic pictures and playful rhyming text work together brilliantly to tell the tale of Luaithrín bhocht, tormented by her sisters Smaoisín agus Straoisín” in a story “full of humour and wit”, said the judging panel.

Shi Lei Chen, 13, of Presentation Secondary School, Waterford, won the KPMG Reading Hero Award for her love of reading in both English and Chinese, having moved to Ireland just two years ago.

UPCOMING LAUNCH

Meanwhile Cork author and poet Eibhlís Carcione launches her debut children’s book, Welcome To Dead Town Raven McKay next Wednesday, June 7, at 6.30pm in Waterstones on Patrick Street.

Published by Everything with Words, this “startlingly original gothic ghost story” sees Raven, 12, put into foster care following the disappearance of her parents. She arrives in a town where the living and the dead live side by side but few reveal their true identity.