Thicker than water

An outstanding collection of twelve coming-of-age stories by Irish and Irish-American writers. Maeve Binchy's 'When Grania Grows Up' pinpoints the moment a girl who believed in happy families loses her innocent faith in people; Marita Conlon-McKenna writes of a teenage romance that triggers hostilities between Catholics and Protestants; the title story by Shane Connaughton deals with macabre humour with a teenage boy rumoured to have committed a murder; and Helena Mullkerns' 'Landlocked' is about an Irish girl waitressing in Texas and beginning to understand the complex dream of immigrant life. The authors include some exciting newcomers, some top Irish children's writers, and some established adult writers who have never written for young people before. In their very different ways each succeeds brilliantly in conveying the universal longing of the young to grow up, to love, and to start a new life.