Sir, - Writers of reviews have every right to express their opinions. There are, however, a number of factual inaccuracies in the review of The Big Guide to Irish Children's Books which appeared in The Irish Times on October 19th, and these need to be, corrected.
To begin with, the bibliographical information provided is inadequate and incorrect. The publisher of The Big Guide is the Irish Children's Book Trust alone, not the Irish Children's Book Trust and' the Children's Literature Association of Ireland, as stated. Anyone who wishes to obtain this publication might also need to know that the editors are Valerie Coghlan and Celia Keenan, that it costs £5.99, and that the ISBN is 1872917011.
Your review says of the article on Leabhair Ghaeilge that specific titles are not recommended under the various headings listed. In the complete article, over 90 titles are mentioned under various themes and categories of Irish language publications.
Most of the books written by Martin Waddell which might be placed under a heading "Humour" are published in the United Kingdom and were not eligible for inclusion in Guide, which discusses only books published in the Republic of Ireland. We did consider including both "Humour" and "Horror" as individual sections, but when we analysed the numbers of likely entrants in either category we decided there were not enough possibilities to warrant separate sections. It is not difficult for readers of The Big Guide to pick out books in other categories which are humorous or which have a horror element.
We are puzzled by the suggestion that literary critics are not among the contributors, as a number of our contributors would consider themselves to be just that. The thoughts of writers, booksellers and children on Irish books for children would, of course, be interesting. There is certainly scope for future publications of this nature which could include other categories of contributor. It is not, however, unusual in an international context for contributors to a volume such as this to be drawn from the world of librarians, teachers and academics.
Many questions related to the present state of writing and publishing for young people in Ireland are posed by the editors introduction and by various articles in The Big Guide. In, particular, the excellent overall view by Jeremy Addis, editor of Books Ire/and, of the history and present position of writing and publishing gives much food for thought to anyone at all concerned about this developing area of our national literature.
We are aware that your reviewer had a limited amount of time in which to study The Big Guide to Irish Children's Books. Perhaps her misconceptions and erroneous statements have arisen from this. A closer and more considered reading will show that, a number of her statements are inaccurate and misleading. - Yours, etc..
Editors,
The Big Guide to Irish Children's Books.
47 Moyne Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.