Thursday, 18 February 2021

Lily and the Lissadell House by Judi Curtin

 


Lily and her friend Nellie are housemaids at Lissadell House. Working in such a big house keeps the girls busy, but they still find time for fun, and friendship with Maeve, the madcap daughter of the famous Republican, Countess Marcievicz.

So when strange things start to happen at Lissadell - odd noises, food going missing and rumours of a ghost - Sherlock Holmes-fan Maeve is determined to lead an investigation.

Between them can the three girls solve the mystery of the Lissadell ghost?


In case you're reading this outside of Ireland and the UK; every year the major publishers come together for World Book Day, a festival that runs for the month of March with World Book Day itself on the 4th this year. Every school in the two countries receives vouchers to distribute to their pupils, and the publishers produce special books that can be exchanged for the voucher, giving the children a free book. There are ten titles in the UK; in Ireland, those ten are available, and the O'Brien Press, one of Ireland's main publishers, produce a title for here as well. This year, this is that book.

Lily is part of a series by Judi Curtin. This title can be enjoyed without too much knowledge of the others, serving as an introduction to the series, although it does spoil something that happens in the most recent full length novel. Like the others, it's full of authentic details and well researched history, and has a clever mystery at its heart. Lissadell is a real Big House and Judi has clearly done a lot of research on how it, specifically, ran and how things were in general at that time in Ireland.

This is a great read, and I hope that children get to read it this year, as it would be a shame for them to miss it.

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