Her Mother’s Face is Roddy Doyle’s latest book, and it’s quite a serious book about a young girl whose mother died. The girl, named Siobháin can remember her mother’s voice, hands, and everything but her face.
The book, which appears from the start to be amazingly serious, and gets funnier as it goes along, is absolutely hilarious, despite what you might think from a first glance. Roddy Doyle read the whole book from start to finish yesterday, and everyone laughed and some people even cried, along with Siobháin Ellen, and other great characters. I recommend that you go and read this book.
10/10
I looked at this book and wondered who on earth Daniel O’Connell was. A friend of mine picked it up and decided it must have been ‘that singer’. He was, in fact, one of Ireland’s heroes who didn’t get any glory for all his hard work. So I sat down to read this book. The cover didn’t really appeal to me, but I still read it. To be honest, it could be a bit boring. I really liked the bits about Daniel as a child, but after that, it just wasn’t my kind of book. I’m not really a big fan of history books for kids, so that’s only my opinion (I’m not a fan of the mega-popular Horrible Histories by Terry Deary.) This might appeal to some people. For one thing, I liked the storytelling , but felt it might have been better if people had actually talked, instead of a brief description of the scene. I know that we aren’t sure of the exact words that people said, but I wouldn’t have minded as long as it was something similar to what the people actually said. Oisín was going to help with the review of this book, but got to page fifty or something around that and then decided not to. He didn’t like this book. I enjoyed it a bit more. I found it interesting finding out where the weird band name Wolfe Tones came from. I would have liked a book on a different person in Irish history, maybe Arthur Griffith or Eamon de Valera, to name two people. Oisín says it ‘drags on a bit’ and I wouldn’t tell everybody to buy this, but perhaps to get it from a library, so as not to spend your money on it, as I can’t guarantee that most people will like this book. Oisín only gave it 2/10, but I enjoyed it a bit more and would give it something around 4/10. Overall, it’s not the one to go for.
Based on the Irish legend that everybody knows from word-of-mouth or even school, Tír na nÓg: A New Story is about what happened after the legend – hundreds of years afterwards, in Tír na nÓg and our time. I felt at the start of the book that the characters were a bit unrealistic. I didn’t enjoy the book as much at the start, but as I read on, I began to get more in to the story. It began to get more realistic and as I got introduced to the scarier elements of the story, I began to get more excited. I kept saying to myself ‘OK, I’ll just read a little bit more… a little bit more… I might keep reading for a little longer…’ I just didn’t want t put down the book! I got a bit confused when I heard the story of the Janus stone. I didn’t like the description or illustrations of Oisín, as they weren’t how I imagined him, but they did really make him seem like a strong, fierce warrior. I felt very sad towards the end when – well, I don’t want to give away the ending. I really felt the same feelings as the characters. I would rate this book 8¾/10 taking away the 1 ¼ for the beginning, which I didn’t enjoy as much.
In this new book, and indeed, new series, you get to learn all about the short but fantastic life of the Irish hero Michael Collins. From a disagreement to a treaty to a war, Michael was an amazing man who fought for Ireland and risked his life, if not gave it, for Ireland and her people. Through this book, you can learn not only about Collins but also Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith and many more men, women and even children. Collins as a brilliant, strong, brave man who helped make Ireland the wonderful country it is today. This is a brilliant, true tale and I’d advise everybody to read it.