LoveReading4Kids Says
One of our Books of the Year 2014 - May 2014 Book of the Month A profound story about the effect of despair on society is touched with magic and humour by best-selling Roddy Doyle. When a black dog comes out of the clouds and settles itself in Dublin everyone’s family is affected in one way or another.
For Gloria and her brother Raymond it brings their Uncle Ben to stay when his business goes bust. What can the children - and all the other children in Dublin – do to chase the black dog away? After a wonderful night-time adventure through Dublin the children enlist the help of the animals in the zoo to chase is black dog away forever.
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About Brilliant
When Uncle Ben's Dublin business fails, it's clear to Gloria and Raymond that something is wrong. He just isn't his usual cheerful self. So when the children overhear their granny saying that the Black Dog has settled on Ben's back and he won't be OK until it's gone, they decide they're going to get rid of it.
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Brilliant Synopsis
When Uncle Ben's Dublin business fails, it's clear to Gloria and Raymond that something is wrong. He just isn't his usual cheerful self. So when the children overhear their granny saying that the Black Dog has settled on Ben's back and he won't be OK until it's gone, they decide they're going to get rid of it.
Gathering all their courage the children set out on a midnight quest to hunt down the Black Dog and chase it away. But they aren't the only kids on the mission. Loads of other children are searching for it too, because the Black Dog is hounding lots of Dublin's adults.
Together - and with the help of magical animals, birds and rodents - the children manage to corner the Black Dog ...but will they have the courage and cleverness to destroy the frightening creature?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781447248804 |
| Publication date: |
8th May 2014 |
| Author: |
Roddy Doyle |
| Publisher: |
Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
249 pages |
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Roddy Doyle Press Reviews
Roddy Doyle’s magical contemporary fable conjures up an atmospheric Dublin of talking animals and helpful vampires, a city where the intensity of human emotion is tempered by a crackling verbal wit and warmth that shines through the swirling black clouds like a ray of sunshine. Brilliant indeed. Daily Mail
The children of Dublin battle a terrible malaise through the use of a special word, and a good dose of magic realism. The Bookseller
About Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle was our Guest Editor in October 2011. Click here to see his book selection.
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a globally successful film by Alan Parker. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film, directed by Stephen Frears. The Van was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize and made into a film also by Stephen Frears. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which won the Booker Prize in 1993, has been published in over twenty languages.
In 1994 he wrote the screenplay for the television drama series, Family. His plays include Brownbread (1987), War (1989) and, most recently, an updated version of The Playboy of the Western World (2007), which he co-wrote with Bisi Adigun. He has also written a collection of stories, The Deportees (2007) and a memoir of his parents, Rory and Ita (2002). His most recent novel is The Dead Republic (2010), which is the final part of the trilogy, following on from Oh, Play That Thing (2004) and A Star Called Henry (1999).
Roddy’s first children’s book The Giggler Treatment was shortlisted for the WH Smith Children’s Book Award.
Roddy Doyle has won many prizes for his writing. These include the Booker Prize and a BAFTA screenplay. He has also won the Irish Children's Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the prestigious 2013 CILIP Carnegie Medal. His novel The Commitments was turned into a blockbuster film directed by Alan Parket and is now a successful musical in Dublin and in London, directed by Jamie Lloyd.
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