Paula McGeever

Paula McGeever lives in Dublin. A writer and teacher, she graduated from TCD with a BA Hons in English and an MPhil in Irish Theatre and Film Studies.

The Savages by Matt Whyman
Hardcore crime novels fade in terms of shock value by comparison to this particular black comedy, which, in terms of non-generic fiction,…
Posted 2 days ago in Reviews

A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan
Helena Duggan has taken the brave step of self-publishing her first book for children.

A Place Called Perfect concerns a young girl named…
Posted 15/04/2013 in Reviews

Dead Time by Anne Cassidy
It is unusual to find a book for teens which takes on adult themes and an adult genre, and succeeds as well as this. A murder-mystery and cold…
Posted 9/02/2013 in Reviews

Grisly Tales from Tumblewater by Bruno Vincent
Grisly tales from Tumblewater is a collection of stories, tied together with an overarching metanarrative. The setting is a darkly comic town,…
Posted 11/10/2012 in Reviews

Warduff and the corncob caper by Mat Head
This picture book is ideal for children who are learning to read, but still enjoy the power of illustration to enliven the story. The language…
Posted 24/08/2012 in Reviews

The Hidden Kingdom by Ian Beck
 

Ian Beck began his career as an illustrator, he was notably involved with producing the cover art for Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick…
Posted 11/05/2012 in Reviews

Soonchild by Russell Hoban
 

Russell Hoban’s latest offering is unconventional, unusual and innovative, as is to be expected from a man used to collaborating with…
Posted 3/04/2012 in Reviews

Writing Hollywood and Writing Fantasy
A Glimpse into John Stephens’ World
Posted 16/08/2011 in Features

Over the Wall by Renate Ahrens
A family split by the Berlin Wall leads to a young girl’s difficulty in accepting a father she’d thought dead. Karo and her mother have always…
Posted 1/12/2010 in Reviews

Rudie Dudie by Michael Lawrence
This book has it all, humour, fun, witchy teachers and Elizabethan profanity, as well as a likeable hero, involuntary mooning and some…
Posted 1/12/2010 in Reviews

The Fatal Child by John Dickinson
This is the third instalment of Dickinson’s medieval fantasy series. Knowledge of the first two books is not essential but would certainly…
Posted 1/04/2010 in Reviews

The Keepers’ Daughter by Gill Arbuthnott
Scottish writer Gill Arbuthnott has written a thrilling fantasy, set on a mysterious archipelago under the tyranny of Alaric, the so-called…
Posted 1/12/2009 in Reviews

Dido by Adèle Geras
Dido forms part of Geras’s series of books based around classical and mythical sources. This book takes as its inspiration, a section from the…
Posted 1/09/2009 in Reviews

Scatterheart by Lili Wilkinson
Scatterheart centres on the character of Hannah Cheshire, teenage daughter of a gentleman, spoiled and adored by her father and by her young…
Posted 1/09/2009 in Reviews

Mad Dog Moonlight by Pauline Fisk
Fisk’s previous writing has won her many accolades and awards. She has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and has won…
Posted 1/06/2009 in Reviews

Hootcat Hill by Lucy Coats
Coats has explained in interviews that ‘hootcat’ is an old English word for a barnowl, and that after she heard the word, ideas germinated…
Posted 1/12/2008 in Reviews

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
Following the success of Miyazaki’s animated adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle, Wynne Jones revisits the Wizard Howl (last glimpsed in…
Posted 1/12/2008 in Reviews

Hero by Perry Moore
Written by the Hollywood producer behind the adaptation of the Narnia books, Hero has a very definite filmic quality. Moore’s writing has the…
Posted 1/09/2008 in Reviews

The Thousand Nights and One Night by David Walser
This wonderful collection of eastern tales is based upon the 19th century English translation by Sir Richard Burton, and includes favourites…
Posted 1/06/2008 in Reviews

The Inferior by Peadar Ó Guilín
The Inferior is set around a humanistic tribal society where the inhabitants live by one rule – eat or be eaten! Outside the area known as the…
Posted 1/04/2008 in Reviews

Jinx by Meg Cabot
Best described as chick-lit for teens, Meg Cabot’s latest offering follows its young heroine’s adventures in New York city. Jean, more…
Posted 1/04/2008 in Reviews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Possibly the most eagerly awaited book of 2007, the final instalment in the adventures of the intrepid boy wizard sees Harry on the hunt for…
Posted 1/12/2007 in Reviews

The Deep by Helen Dunmore
This is the third book in Dunmore’s best-selling series of books about a brother and sister living on the Cornish coast. The lives of Conor…
Posted 1/09/2007 in Reviews

Soul Eater by Michelle Paver
In a world very much like our own but six thousand years ago, the Ice Age is coming to an end and people live in small clan groups, relying on…
Posted 1/06/2007 in Reviews

The Moneylender’s Daughter by VA Richardson
A swashbuckling sequel to The House of Windjammer, this book moves between the stories of teenagers Adam Windjammer and the heroine of the…
Posted 1/04/2007 in Reviews

The Moneylender’s Daughter by VA Richardson
A swashbuckling sequel to The House of Windjammer, this book moves between the stories of teenagers Adam Windjammer and the heroine of the…
Posted 1/12/2006 in Reviews

Lionboy: The Truth by Zizou Corder
The mother and daughter writing team behind the ‘Lionboy’ books have produced a fitting finale to the trilogy. Charlie, the young hero, has…
Posted 1/06/2006 in Reviews

Forged in the Fire by Ann Turnbull
No Shame, No Fear was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 2004. This sequel…
Posted 1/06/2006 in Reviews

Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini, the wunderkind of fantasy, finished his home education at the age of fifteen and translated his love of science-fiction…
Posted 1/04/2006 in Reviews

The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
Marcus Sedgwick, winner of the Branford Boase Award for his first book, Floodland uses World War I as a setting for his latest book. The…
Posted 1/12/2005 in Reviews

Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess
Gay sex, masturbation and teenage pregnancy sit alongside betrayal, warfare and infanticide in this aptly named gore fest from master of…
Posted 1/11/2005 in Reviews

The Widow and the King by John Dickinson
An excellent first novel deserves an excellent followup, and with this sequel to ‘The Cup of the World’, John Dickinson has delivered. The…
Posted 1/07/2005 in Reviews

Pass the Parcel by Annie Kubler
Big, bold, bright simplistic illustrations perfectly partner simplistic repetitive text in this ‘lift the flap’ picturebook for infants. Mouse…
Posted 1/07/2005 in Reviews

The Pack by Tom Pow
True stories of maltreated children in Russia, Africa and sometimes closer to home are obvious influences in this Orwellian post-apocalyptic…
Posted 1/12/2004 in Reviews

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
Nancy Farmer’s love of Norse mythology shines through in this wonderful fantasy about an apprentice bard who is captured by Norsemen. Young…
Posted 1/12/2004 in Reviews

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
At its most basic, this is almost a fairy-tale of wish fulfilment, where the unloved and dispossessed face horror and adventure, are tested…
Posted 1/09/2004 in Reviews

Jason and the Gorgon’s Blood by Jane Yolen
This is part of the ‘before they were famous’ series of books concentrating on figures from ancient lore such as Odysseus and Hipployta, and…
Posted 1/09/2004 in Reviews

The House on Falling Star Hill by Michael Molloy
Tim is fascinated by the mysterious village of Enton, where his grandparents live. There are many questions about the place that no-one can…
Posted 1/06/2004 in Reviews

The Cup of the World by John Dickinson
The wilful young protagonist, Phaedra, is first glimpsed at the King’s Palace in Tuscolo, where she catches the eye of Prince Septimus. She…
Posted 1/06/2004 in Reviews

Eyetooth by Frank Rodgers
School bullies nicknamed Joe Price ‘Scaredy Cat’ when he failed to act out their dares. However, when Joe’s family are kidnapped by Count…
Posted 1/05/2004 in Reviews

A Sterkarm Kiss by Susan Price
This is the sequel to The Sterkarm Handshake (winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize and shortlisted for the Carnegie medal). It can…
Posted 1/04/2004 in Reviews

Scabbit Isle by Tom Pow
Tom Pow’s blend of fact and fiction (real life plague muir, Scabbit Isle, and imagined victim, Janet) takes hauntings as its main theme. The…
Posted 1/12/2003 in Reviews

Warriors of Camlann by NM Browne
NM Browne has created a wonderful sequel to Warriors of Alavna with this fast-paced, action-filled story. Knowledge of the previous book is…
Posted 1/12/2003 in Reviews

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
This story is told through the intertwining narratives of the two main characters, Roddy and Nick: narratives that parallel and eventually…
Posted 1/09/2003 in Reviews

Doctor Illuminatur by Martin Booth
A timeless battle between Good and Evil (where genomes, quantum physics and medieval history coexist with an homunculus, alchemy and time-…
Posted 1/09/2003 in Reviews