Books: Six top gift ideas for children for Christmas
Looking for a book to snuggle up with this Christmas? Pet shares her top six reads.
Flossie McFluff Saves Christmas, by Eoin O’Brien, illustrated by Audrey Dowling (O’Brien Press €9.99)
Every year, Christmas is ‘saved’ by various characters in children’s books, be they animal, human, or magical. What Christmas needs saving from varies, and this time it’s an eco-threat in the form of flooding. This being an Irish fairy story, it’s raining rather than snowing as Christmas approaches, and with their burrows underwater, the woodland animals have nowhere dry to sleep. Forest fairy Flossie McFluff flutters to the rescue, and soon herons, hedgehogs, and even a flock of geese are snuggled up warm and dry in the branches of a giant pine tree. But how will Santa know where to deliver gifts to these displaced creatures?
Christmas is coming and the Starlight Stables Gang, in their fourth adventure co-authored by equestrian influencer Esme Higgs, are gearing up for their seasonal party at the stables. With an absent father and sick mother, Daniel is not in festive spirit however, between minding his siblings and struggling to keep up with schoolwork.
Being at the stables is the one shining light in his life, but when he finds an abandoned horse in need of help, can he take on yet another responsibility, and can his family somehow manage to have a happy Christmas? A pony story with added Jacqueline Wilson-esque family issues that will grip readers aged eight-plus.
Is it a book, is it a toy? Is it a craft activity? Yes, it’s all of those and more, in a portable 3D doll’s house that can provide hours of imaginative play but packs neatly away into a compact space. It even describes itself in rhyming verse: “Step inside the red front door. Count the rooms – one, two, three, four. Use the press-outs, stickers too. What goes where? It’s up to you.” Fold out the book’s pages to reveal each room, then pop out the furniture pieces, construct, and decorate with stickers to create an ingenious house of cards for children aged three-plus.
“Bhí tuirse ar Mhaidhc agus rinne sé cinneadh. Labhair sé le Micil, an duine ba shine: ‘A Mhicil, a mhic, tá mo chúrsa anois rite – Fágfaidh mé an muileann seo is tabharfaidh mé duitse é…..’ “Labhair sé le Cóilín, an maicín ab óige: ‘Faraor, níl mórán eile agam, a stóirín. Ach tá puisín beag agamsa, puisín beag gleoite, is fágfaidh mé an puisín seo agatsa, a Chóilín.’” The miller’s youngest son receives a more valuable inheritance than do his brothers, as it turns out, when their father gifts him Puss in Boots, whose wit is responsible for Cóilín finding wealth and a royal bride. Puss, now known as Puisín na mBróg, is the star of the latest fairytale in verse, as Gaeilge, from An Slipéar Gloine author Fearghas Mac Lochlainn, stunningly illustrated in a palette of purple, yellow, and green by Paddy Donnelly.
What better gift for a young bookworm than a guide to inspire their own creative writing? Laureate na nÓg Patricia Forde suggests ways to spark story-writing and find an authentic narrative voice, tips for world-building, character-development, and plot twists.
Creating a story box of objects, using music, nature, smell, or works of art, are among possible starting points, or try setting a timer and keep writing for just three minutes to see what creativity emerges. There’s the art of the start and mending the ending, fascinating advice from Irish authors including Derek Landy and Eoin Colfer, plus a reminder of two small but powerful words to use when exploring the imagination: ‘What’ and ‘If’.
Master of mystery stories Robin Stevens sets her third Ministry of Unladylike Activity novel for ages nine-plus in the weeks prior to Christmas 1941 in Bletchley Park, the Second World War Allies’ code-breaking HQ in Milton Keynes.
A code-breaker has been shot dead, and a message found on his body indicates the presence of an enemy spy at Bletchley. Ministry members Nuala, May, and Eric are tasked with investigating a mystery complex not only due to the nature of the victim’s top-secret work and the possibility of duplicity, but because the finger of suspicion is being pointed at someone they know. Bletchley, a hive of ingenious thinkers whose job it was to decipher letter patterns, employed the likes of Dilly Knox and Alan Turing. By its very nature it relied upon ‘boffins’ with diverse brain powers, making this a fertile environment for Stevens’ exploration of the awesome - and sometimes less awesome - aspects of what might now be termed neurodivergence, in the intensely pressured context of war.
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