Childhood Favourites: When the Luvenders Came to Merrick Town, by June Considine

First in a new, extremely irregular feature! Every so often we will reread books we loved as children and see how they hold up now that we're adults. For the first one, we have an Irish childhood classic.

The Luvenders are spirits in the service of Solquest, the evil Zentyre, who has lost the secret of eternal youth and can only regain it by capturing 100 children. His plan is to mount an exhibition of beautiful old dolls in the pre-Christmas rush in Merrick town, steal real children, turn them into dolls, and replace them in their homes with living dolls.



Apparently in 1990 no one wrote blurbs. Solquest, the Zentyre, has magic powers. The most important here is his hypnotism; if you can hold out for 60 seconds, you're free, but if not, you're his. This book (which does have a useful glossary at the front) opens on the night of a huge storm. Solquest tries to send it away, but the storm isn't having that; it resists for 60 seconds and is then free to do whatever it wants, and it chooses to flood the river and steal Solquest's three magical stones. Without them, he can't do the ceremony to regain his lost youth and he'll be crushed into dust.

He finds an old spell to use instead. It calls for 100 young people, and he sets course for Merrick Town. Once before he tried to destroy Merrick Town, but a young girl living there defied him for 60 seconds and was able to protect the town, though she died in the attempt. Local legend has it that she returns to protect the town when it's in need.

Solquest uses his magic to set up a display of old fashioned toys in the town hall. The centrepiece is 100 dolls, dressed in clothes from all around the world. Solquest draws the young people in with his magic, turns them into dolls, and replaces them with his Luvenders, furry creatures bound to his will. The Luvenders return to the children's homes until Solquest is ready to leave.

The book starts out following Sally and Paula, sisters living in Merrick Town, before switching to their cousin Valerie, as they each realise what's happening and do their best to fight against it.

This book was published in 1990, when I was (mumble) years old. I would have read it quite soon after that, and probably again when the sequels came out. Still, it's twenty years at least since I read it. I remembered the general plot, but there are also individual set pieces that I remembered very clearly:

• I remembered the Luvender dealing with the neighbour's dog
• I remembered the milk skin scene (because I agree with Paula on that, and always check, and every time I do I remember this scene)
• I remembered the fart machine
• I remembered Old Knees Up. But really, once you've read it, who could forget him?
• I remembered Valerie feeding the dog out the window

I'd forgotten - or hadn't noticed when reading as a child - the easy flow of the language, and the pervasive creepiness. Eighty pages in, Paula and Sally still don't know what's happening, but they know that something isn't right. We, the reader, know exactly what's about to happen, and it's almost unbearable watching it unfold on the page. There's also some brilliant foreshadowing in a newspaper article Sally reads early on, something you only notice when you know what's happening.

The writing itself is great, perfect for the age group it's aimed at. Given when it was written, no one had phones, there was one TV in the house, they listened to a gramophone and the internet isn't even mentioned...but I didn't miss any of it. It just seemed natural, the way it was supposed to be.


Luvenders was originally intended as a stand alone, but June expanded it into a trilogy. The other titles are somewhere at home; I'm going to have to dig them out, because this really is an amazing story. If I could reprint one book from my childhood, it would be this. No questions asked.


When the Luvenders came to Merrick Town has been out of print for years, but regularly turns up on second hand sites and in thrift and second hand stores.