WINNER of the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards Honour Award for Illustration. Shortlisted for the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Shortlisted for the 2025 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards.
"Colfer and McCarthy are a dazzling duo in this endlessly entertaining retelling of banshee folklore. McCarthy's illustrations elevate this story, making it a genuine work of art filled with familiar Irish iconography that readers will adore." - The Irish Examiner
Banshees are supernatural Irish harbingers of doom, but … where do they come from? The answer: they grow in pods on the prickly gorse bush. The sole job of a baby banshee, a "bansheenie" as they are called, is to bond with a human. Once bonded, they know everything about that person. Most importantly … when they will die.
Our bansheenie, named Beanie, is no ordinary herald of death. When she sees her person, a little girl called Rose, she decides to change her own - and Rose's - fate, and instead of delivering bad news, Beanie wants to protect Rose and her family. When her banshee's howl of doom won't work, she must draw power and strength from the ancient secrets and hidden networks of the natural world around her. She must create a brand new sound, a new way of being in the world that will change ... everything.
Both Eoin Colfer’s parents were teachers and young Eoin was taught by his dad Billy at Wexford’s Christian Brothers primary. Eoin remembers his dad’s presence in school as “witty…[he] made school fun.” Colfer junior’s first attempt at serious writing came in the sixth grade. “I wrote a play for the class about Norse Gods. Everyone died in the end except me.”
Eoin followed in his parents’ footsteps and trained to be a teacher but his writing didn't stop and his first book, Benny and Omar, appeared in 1999 and instantly achieved bestselling status in Ireland. Then in 2001 the first Artemis Fowl book was published and he was able to resign from teaching and concentrate fully on writing.
Eoin Colfer was nominated for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award.
picture copyright Michael Paynter.
Here's a hilarious clip from Eoin Colfer Virtually Live:
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT EOIN COLFER... Praise for Artemis Fowl
“Wildly original… and you thought fairy stories were just for kids.” - T2 (The Telegraph)
“It’s a highly original adventure story with an action-packed plot which twists and turns right to the end – a kind of William Gibson meets the Hobbit/Irish Legends. It has all the right ingredients.” Marc Lambert, Children’s Programme Director at the Edinburgh Festival
“Make sure you buy it!” Denise Van Outen, Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast
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