Cover: Abigail Dela Cruz
Here is a recommendation that it has taken me far too long to write up.
Timely
Sinéad O’Hart caught my attention with her enormously promising debut children’s novel The Eye of the North. (Reviewed here in September 2017.) Since then she has written two very engaging and entertaining further titles. However her latest, The Time Tider, is her best book yet and brings her firmly into the company of our finest contemporary children’s authors. She has always had a remarkable talent for both writing and storytelling, but now she has added to this startling originality of material that will challenging the thinking and stretch the imagination of her young readers, without in any way sacrificing accessibility, or indeed excitement. Time is a fascinating subject for this book, as indeed it is for many of us,
Vivid
Sinéad O’Hart’s language-skill is exceptional. Every location is brought alive with just the right words and phrases, unobtrusively crafted together to evoke a sensuously vivid reality. Either the author has particular places in mind or has a remarkable ability to collage scenes from garnered experience. The result allows the reader to visit each scene and makes for the most intense sense of involvement with her evolving narrative. Very much the same applies to her characters, especially here of course protagonist Mara and her father, who are drawn with real sensitivity.
It is thrilling to see all the promise this talented writer showed in her debut so outstandingly fulfilled. There needs to be time in every child’s reading for Sinéad O’Hart.
Fortunately we now have a further title of hers, The Silver Road, to look forward to in September.
Note:
There are also previous posts on this blog featuring books about time:
Three mind-bogglingly brilliant books exploring the dimension of time [posted July 2029]
A time traveller’s theory of relativity [posted August 2022]
As well as my preview of a wonderful upcoming one:
Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time [posted June 2023]