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Middle Grade books- female Irish authors
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items Some of my favourite middle grade books, all by female Irish authors. These are suitable for ages 9+, maybe younger if you have a strong reader. They can be used as class novels as well as just reading for pleasure. Enjoy, a let me know what you think.
Sections
13
Leona Forde & Karen Harte
Patricia Forde
Sarah Webb
Judi Curtin
Serena Molloy
Sheena Wilkinson
Leona Forde & Karen Harte
Milly’s class have won an All-Ireland Climate Action competition, which means they’re in with a chance of earning a coveted Green Flag award for their school. Best of all is the prize: a private tour of Fota Wildlife Park! Sure, what could possibly g...
Milly Mccarthy is a Complete Catastrophe
Milly confronts a chaotic feis as second-hand glamour clashes with hard-won talent
Milly McCarthy and the Irish Dancing Disaster
It’s nearly the summer holidays and Milly’s class is heading off on a school tour to the Gaeltacht in the West of Ireland. Milly can’t wait to be away from home with her friends but the teachers aren’t quite so excited. Because Milly is a constant c...
Milly McCarthy Wild Atlantic Shambles
Patricia Forde
How many words do you need to survive? Letta loves her job as the Wordsmith’s apprentice, giving out words to people that need them. It doesn’t strike her as odd that the people of Ark are only allowed to use a few hundred words, and words like “love...
The Wordsmith- Patricia Forde
A gripping high-concept speculative middle-grade novel from the award-winning author of Bumpfizzle, the Best on Planet Earth and The List Aria lives on a well-ordered planet whose people have eradicated illness and even death. Earth is their ‘shadow ...
The Girl Who fell to Earth
Bumpfizzle thinks he’s an alien on a secret mission to Earth, but he might actually just be a boy who’s jealous of his new baby sibling. His hilarious diary tells all about his funny misunderstandings, messy adventures and the strange humans he has t...
Bumpfizzle The Best on Planet Earth
Sarah Webb
It’s 1956. When thirteen-year-old bookworm Rosy Heron and her big sister Martha are sent to Dublin to help their aunt Toto in her busy bookshop for the summer, their quiet lives change overnight. The two sisters quickly become part of the Baggot Book...
The Bookshop Sisters-Sarah Webb
It’s 1944. Twelve year old Grace Devine lives at Blacksod Lighthouse and weather station in County Mayo with her parents and little brother. When a German plane crashes nearby, she and her best friend Sibby risk their lives to save the young pilot. G...
The Weather Girls
Dublin 1911. When Eliza Kane and her brother Jonty move from the leafy suburbs of Rathmines to a tenement flat on Henrietta Street they are in for a shock. Pigs and ponies in the yard, rats in the hallways and cockroaches or ‘clocks’ underfoot!When t...
The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street
Judi Curtin
It’s 1911 and young sisters Sally and Bridget are sailing to New York to find work – leaving behind their home and everything they know in Ireland. The city is so big and strange, but the sisters and their new friend Julia are determined to make the ...
Sally in the city of Dreams- Judi Curtin
Sally and her sister Bridget are New Yorkers now – they’ve settled in and feel at home in the bustling city. Life in New York is exciting enough that the girls can rise above life with Catherine, their mean cousin. At work one day, Bridget finds a ph...
Sally and the Lost Photograph
When Lily is a young teenager, the time comes for her and her friends to leave school and find work; some are emigrating to America, some going to work in shops. Lily is going into service in the Big House – Lissadell.
Lily at Lissadell- Series
Molly and Beth are best friends and love spending time together. But when their two families move in together, maybe they are a little too close for comfort! Out shopping one day they need to avoid the most embarrassing encounter ever with Molly’s mu...
Time After Time
Serena Molloy
A dyslexia friendly verse novel. The award-winning tale of a girl who feels broken, and the dolphin who makes her whole. A powerful story of friendship, hope and self-discovery, perfect for readers aged 9+, beautifully illustrated by George Ermos.
Wider Than the Sea- Serena Molloy
Sheena Wilkinson
It’s 1918 and Stella has lost her suffragette mother to the terrible flu pandemic that is sweeping Europe. The Great War is finally coming to a close, and women are going to be able to vote for the first time. Stella wants to change the world – but s...
Star by Star- Sheena Wilkinson
It’s a new term at Fernside boarding school, and Robin can’t wait for fun in the dorm, playing games and maybe even winning the coveted Form Shield. But for new girl Linnet, Robin’s younger cousin, there are just too many new faces and strict rules. ...
First Term at Fernside
It’s 1921. Ireland has been at war with Britain for two years. When Polly’s brother Leo returns from war, it’s like he’s turned into a different person. After he turns violent, Polly runs away to Helen’s Hope hostel in Belfast, where Catholic and Pro...
Hope Against Hope
Laura Keohane
A lonely summer looms ahead for Lana, with only Nan and Grandad for company. Still, it’s better than being stuck at home, living in her perfect brother’s shadow. But Carrig Cottage has magic and secrets of its own. When Lana finds a strange coat in t...
The Secret of the Selkies- Laura Keohane
Alison Weatherby
Mae Flynn is used to the chaos of her rural Irish Catholic boarding school, but she isn't expecting to discover a dead body in the school kitchen. The victim had recently been getting on the bad side of seemingly every adult Mae knows. In other words...
Death before Detention- Alison Weatherby
Pearl and Ellen are recruited to work at code-cracking HQ, BletchleyPark, during World War Two - but when they stumble across a sinisterplot which threatens the very soul of the war effort, theirbudding friendship is put to the test.
The Secrets Act
The first years at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart go on their annual weekend getaway to Connemara Survival Adventure Centre, where bad weather cuts off the group. What's worse, they're trapped with the annoying pupils of a local boys' school, a few of ...
School Trip Survival
Eve Mc Donnell
Brewster climbs chimneys risking his life as a sweep, but he has got a SECRET: he is a WIZARD with numbers and his numbers predict a TERRIFYING STORM OF STARS. Upon each star he'll cast a wish to be the last climbing boy ever. A powerful woman promis...
The Last Boy- Eve McDonnell
A story of courage, determination, time-travel and a magical crow! The river is about to burst its banks, the town is engulfed by a snow storm, fourteen souls will be lost, unless Needle and Glory can change fate.
Elsetime
Who can catch a memory thief? Follow Piaf and her brother deep into the catacombs below the city of Paris in wild pursuit of the memory thief. 'McDonnell has created a captivating, if dastardly world'
The Chestnut Roaster
Sinead Moriarty
Quinn is furious when her mum announces they are moving in with Grandad because her doctor dad is away working abroad again. New school, new town, new everything. She manages to make one good friend, Charlie, the goalie on her football team, who love...
Fixing Mum and Dad- Sinead Moriarty
Grace is excited for the neighbourhood Halloween party until a spark from the bonfire turns her night upside down, sending her to hospital and leaving her with scars that change how she sees herself. Later, back at school, Grace struggles with the st...
Saving Grace
When Riley’s dad dies suddenly, leaving behind a mountain of debt, the life she’s used to starts to crumble around her. Suddenly finding herself homeless, Riley tries to keep up appearances at school, hiding the truth from her lovely but clueless fri...
The truth about Riley
Alex Dunne
Molly discovers a hidden family of magic healers defending creatures against encroaching dark forces. ‘Magic isn’t only found in old ancient forests or dusty old castles … it’s everywhere, all the time …’ Molly Flynn never had a place to call home un...
Small Magics- Alex Dunne
The door flew open, and Granny stared out at Cat with wild eyes.'So, ' she said, almost in a whisper, 'they're back.' For the first time in over fifty years, the Trooping Fairies are in the small town of Clonbridge for their annual Revels. Their arri...
The Book Of Secrets
When Cat finds out that her cool new neighbour, Dr Becca Ryan, is a witch, she’s fascinated. Cat already loves magic – she has The Sight – and she’s sure she can learn loads from Becca. But Cat has other things on her mind – her mum has a boyfriend a...
The Harp of Power
Meg Grehan
Every morning, when Annie’s moms open up their bookshop, there’s a pile of books on the counter, waiting for the right reader to come and find them. But one day, there’s a book nobody comes for. Nobody ever comes, and each day the book gets lonelier,...
The Lonely book- Meg Grehan
An accessible and beautifully written middle grade novel-in-verse by award-winning Irish author Meg Grehan about Stevie, a young girl reckoning with anxiety about the many things she has yet to understand—including her feelings about her friend Chloe...
The Deepest Breath
The sequel to the award-winning queer novel in verse, The Deepest Breath – a beautifully written, warm and reassuring LGBTQIA+ story about growing up, identity and the comfort of friendship.
The Brightest Star
SUITABLE FOR AN OLDER AUDIENCEThe blood Feeds the hunger That threatens everything It starts when Claudia offers her a yellow rose. Immy has been in love before – many times, across many lifetimes. But never as deeply, as intensely as this. Claudia h...
Baby Teeth
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Beth plans to spend a whole year alone, in her snug, safe house. But she has reckoned without floppy-eared, tail-wagging Mouse, who comes nosing to her window. Followed shortly by his owner, Alice. As Beth’s year of solitude ...
The Space Between
Megan Wynne
Beth didn't want to move to Dublin – she misses her old life and her friends back in London. New home and new school is hard enough, but to make matters worse someone keeps messing up her room … At first, Beth blames her annoying brother, Cormac, but...
The House on Hawthorn Road
What if the dead could help the living? 'I live on the other side.' Gwen swallowed. 'Of what?' 'Of life.' The spirit girl’s eyes shone with silver tears. What if the dead could help the living? Home schooled all her life, Gwen is packed off to boardi...
The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey