No Goodbye (11 page)

MARITA CONLON-McKENNA is one of Ireland’s most popular children’s authors. She has written eight best-selling children’s books to date, and they have been translated into many languages.
Under the
Hawthorn Tree
, her first novel, became an immediate bestseller and has been described as ‘the biggest success story in children’s historical fiction’. Marita lives in Dublin with her husband and four children.

Under the Hawthorn Tree
Wildflower Girl
Fields of Home
The Blue Horse
Safe Harbour
In Deep Dark Wood
A Girl Called Blue
Granny MacGinty
For full details of all of Marita’s books, see
www.obrien.ie

AWARDS
International Reading Association Award 1991 for
Under the Hawthorn Tree.
Reading Association of Ireland Award 1991 for
Under the Hawthorn Tree.
Bisto Book of the Year Award 1992 (Best Historical Novel)
for
Wildflower Girl.
Bisto Book of the Year Award 1993 (OverallWinner)
for
The Blue Horse.

Ireland in the 1840s is devastated by famine. When tragedy strikes their family, Eily, Michael and Peggy are left to fend for themselves. Starving and in danger of ending up in the dreaded workhouse, they run away. Their one hope is to find the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother’s stories. With tremendous courage they set out on a journey that will test every reserve of strength, love and loyalty they possess.

At the age of seven, Peggy made a terrifying journey through famine-stricken Ireland. Now thirteen, and determined to make a new life for herself, she sets off alone across the Atlantic to America. Will she ever see her family again? An extraordinary story of courage, independence and adventure.

For Eily, Michael and Peggy the memory of the famine is still strong. But Mary-Brigid, Eily’s first child, has the future to look forward to. What kind of future is it? Ireland is in turmoil, with evictions, burnings, secret meetings and land wars. Eily and her family may be thrown off their farm, Michael may lose his job in the big house, and Peggy, in America, feels trapped in her role as a maid. Will they ever have land and a home they can call their own? Eily, Michael and Peggy have once shown great courage – now their courage is needed again.

Packed with ideas for classroom use of this best-selling novel and the film based on it, this study guide will be invaluable to both primary and second-level teachers.

P

Produced, scripted, directed and filmed by young people, this film version is presented in four episodes. It is available on video.

A strange new neighbour spirits Mia to a land of legend, and her brother Rory faces dragons, giants and many other dangers in his bid to rescue her, in this captivating story of ancient magic and sorcery.

Winner Bisto Book of the Year award When their caravan burns down, Katie’s family is forced to live in a house on a new estate. How will Katie cope with school and a settled life?

During the Second World War, two English children are evacuated from the horrors of the London Blitz to live in Greystones, County Wicklow, with a stern grandfather they have never met before. How will they adapt to this new life in an unfamiliar place?

Blue O’Malley has no mother, father, sisters or brothers; all she has is her friends in the children’s home at Larch Hill. Her one great hope is to find a family of her own. But where?

Constantly in trouble, Blue forges her own path through the difficult world of the orphanage.

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