‘Tis the season to ... curl up with a book, of course. Ask the people of Iceland, where nearly the whole of winter is dedicated to books. They call it Jolobokaflud, and it culminates on Christmas Eve, when readable gifts are exchanged as a key part of their yuletide tradition. A book, as they say, is a present for life, and what could be better to brighten dark winter days than a cosy mystery?
Alexandra Benedict’s Merry Christmas Murders (Simon and Schuster, 8+, £7.99) is just the ticket for the middle-grade reader. Brooke is the new kid at Wood Dean Secondary School. She finds herself welcomed by the Neurokind Club, a gang of neurodiverse kids whose sensitivity proves to be their superpower when the principal suddenly dies. Could the school cook have murdered him with a mince pie? As well as a page-turning mystery to polish off with a selection box, the book offers an empathetic engagement with themes of friendship and the challenges of fitting in.
The Feathered Book by Charlie Nutbrown (Everything With Words, 8+, £8.99) is another gripping whodunnit; a “locked room mystery”, in which animals become investigators when the Feathered Book, an exotic ancient tome that holds the secret of turning base metal into gold, is stolen from the underground library supervised by a grumpy old squirrel called Pecksniff. Led by Monty – a flighty fox, who happens to be a detective-fiction fan – a menagerie of creatures collaborate to discover clues and the perpetrator of the crime. Apart from the propulsive plot, there is word pleasure in abundance in this atmospheric debut. It is difficult to resist loving characters with names such as Ticklepenny and Croopus, even when they aren’t quite as cute as they first seem.
Tom McCaughren’s vulpine novels defined many Irish childhoods in the 1980s. Now very young reader can share the pleasures of McCaughren’s nature tales courtesy of his new title Run Home, Little Fox (O’Brien Press, 3+, 14.99), a picture book collaboration with Erika McGann, illustrated by Shannon Bergin, which just won Irish Children’s Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Foxy is a cub on a quest to “earn [his] bushy red tail”. Setting out into the Wild Wood for adventure, he encounters all sorts of creatures and potential pals, as well as a conveniently bouncy trampoline. The glossy pages are full of animal mayhem, and the journey structure works brilliantly to extend the canon of McCaughren’s fine work for this young age group.
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Encyclopaedias are always popular presents at Christmas. Animalopedia by John Burke and Kathi Burke (Gill Books, 5+, 24.99), another award-winner, and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Irish Seashore by Lucy Taylor, illustrated by Linda Fährlin (Gill Books, 5+, 22.99) are two standout titles, chock full of facts about Irish wildlife that you can spot on winter walks. Both books have a distinctive visual identity, with stylish fonts and page layouts making it easy to engage with the texts. You will find it difficult to squeeze them into a stocking or a bookshelf but these are perfect coffee-table tomes, which adult readers will appreciate too.
What on Earth Books are the publishers of the perennially popular Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia (What on Earth, 8+, £30). Edited by Christopher Lloyd, the latest edition takes a chronological survey of world history that extends into the present day, with exploration of urgent contemporary themes, including AI and climate change, that ask the young reader to consider the future too. Meanwhile, Marvellous Animal Homes by Jane Wilsher, illustrated by Laurie Avon (What on Earth, 5+, £14.99) gets younger readers on board with its magic lens, a magnifying glass that reveals the secrets of underground lairs and treetop nests across the animal kingdom. A search-and-find strategy encourages close reading. Prepare to be pleasantly bombarded with facts.
Beautiful classic fairytale compilations are 10-a-penny these days, but Maire Zepf’s The Cloud Kingdom (Little Island, €18.99, 5+) offers something different in a familiar fairytale package. An original “faery” tale collection with a metafictional twist, The Cloud Kingdom pits bookworm Nancy against a gang of little folk who have eyes on her cat. The wily word-lover soon realises she can bewitch the enchanted creatures with stories. Zepf invents giants and ghosts, dragons and Gragallies, all playfully linked as stories within stories, and Andrew Whitson’s hand-drawn illustrations are busy with detail as they bring the singular situations to life. The black and white end covers, meanwhile, are only begging to be coloured in, so have pencils handy.
Finally, if you are having difficulty deciding on a title for the young reader in your life, you can always give the gift of agency to them. Give them a book token and they can choose their own adventure.
Sara Keating is an arts journalist
