Welcome to My Summer 2025 Newsletter
Hello My Dear Newsletter Reader,
I’ve become less and less interested in checking out my social media pages recently. I’m on social media to read book reviews, find out about great new books, and to interact with my readers, and with teachers, librarians and fellow booksellers. But at the moment all I’m getting is a lot of ads about things I’m not interested in.
So I’d like to spend less time on social media and more time interacting with YOU - the people who also love books and in particular children’s books.
I’ll try to do more regular newsletters, with book reviews, book event news, and interesting facts I’ve discovered recently.
Like this - I was at a book event yesterday at Dalkey Book Festival and Carlo Gebler said that his mother, Enda O’Brien got great book contract help and advice from… Roald Dahl. I’d never heard that before and it was so interesting!
I’m a big fan of book festivals. Look out for the West Cork Literature Festival in July, held in Bantry. I’ll be hosting a children’s writers and illustrators get together on 13th July at 5.30pm in Ma Murphy’s pub (no booking required - all welcome)
And I’ll also be chairing this event:
Properbook: The Craft of Writing
It’s sold out but you can join the waiting list
This newsletter won’t be the most pretty, it won’t have fancy design, my skills lie in other areas. But I promise you, I will try to fill it with useful, honest stuff.
Brilliant Reads
Lady’s Knight by Amy Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is wonderfully bonkers! It’s set in medieval times (kind of!) and blends history (knights, ladies, jousting) with a female friendship and female love story line. The plotting is clever but it’s the dialogue and characters that really make this book crackle - it’s funny, smart and such fun to read. And there’s DRAGONS. What’s not to love?
A hearty 10/10 from me! Age 15+ and adults
The Museum of Lost Umbrellas by Marie Louise Fitzpatrick is another outstanding read.
(Published 31st July)
It's about a girl called Dilly Kyteler (the book is full ofcarefully chosen names) who is sent to live with her last remaining relative, Aunt Florence on an island called Ollipest.
But the island is no ordinary island, it's full of hiddenmagic, and when Dilly finds a new friend and an umbrella museum, mysteriousthings start to happen.
Dilly has a secret, an ancestral power that can help savethe island...
Why did I love this book so much?
1/ It's such a clever, beautifully crafted story. Theplotting is masterful, not surprising as Marie-Louise has won many awards forher work.
2/ The characters are wonderful. It's not often that I crywhen reading fantasy, but this book made me cry twice - once with relief andhappiness and once when I feared a very important character might have mettheir end.
3/ It's such an immersive read - you live every scene withthe Dilly and her friends. I read it in three days as I couldn't wait to findout what happened next, getting up early to squeeze in a read.
4/ It's packed with all kinds of clever nods to books,myths, legends, witch-lore - I can't wait to talk to Marie-Louise about this asshe must have researched and thought about the book so carefully. It feels likeshe's woven in so many things that she loves and that are important to her.
here's also a strong message of kindness and inclusion inthe book, the mob rule scenes are geniuinely chilling.
There are nods to Mary Poppins (especially in the theumbrellas), Hy-Brasil (a magical Irish island), shapeshifting, the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a magical library and so many other things.It makes for a rich, involving read.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 10/10
Bye for new, dear readers!
Please do keep in touch - feel free to email me or you can find me on Instagram (sometimes!).
Yours in books,
Sarah XXX