Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Izzy's Magical Football Adventure

Izzy's Magical Football Adventure
Written by Emma Larkin
Illustrated by Paul Nugent


I received a free copy of this book from the author via Rachel's Random Resources in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

11 year-old Izzy loves football. What she doesn't love is how she keeps losing football games to her older brother. Izzy is really angry and wondering what the point is of even playing football is when suddenly she sees her great grandmother's bracelet. Suddenly Izzy transported to a different place that is wilder than she can ever imagine.

The pictures were nice and vivid. I thought they matched well with the story.

This fun little story is about not giving up. Izzy is mad after losing the football game, but after being transported to another time she sees what can happen if she works towards her dreams instead of giving up. Following your dreams no matter how hard it can be is a wonderful lesson that is great for any age.

☆☆☆

Synopsis:

Izzy is a seven-year-old girl who lives in Ireland and loves all sport, especially Gaelic Football.

Izzy plays football with her brothers on a regular basis in their back garden and dreams of playing for her county in the All Ireland Ladies Football Final in Croke Park when she is older.

One day, Izzy puts on her great grandmother’s bracelet, which is made of old All Ireland medals that her great grandmother won a long time ago, and something unexpected and magical happens, which may make Izzy’s Croke Park dream a reality sooner than she expected…………….


Purchase Links
Author Bio


My name is Emma Larkin, and I am the founder of “Emma Larkin Books” and “Rebel in Kerry Press”. I have recently written and published my first book “Izzy’s Magical Football Adventure”, and I hope to write many more books about Izzy and her adventures in sport. As may be evident from the name of my publishing imprint, I am a “Rebel in Kerry”! This means that I am originally from County Cork in Ireland, which is known as the Rebel County, but I moved to Kerry (another county in Ireland which neighbours Cork) in 2006 and have been happily living in Kerry since then, with my husband and four children. My husband is a Kerry native and we live in North Kerry, near Listowel, where my husband is from, and is an area which is rich is literary history!
I have always enjoyed reading and writing. Writing essays was my favourite part of primary school!
In my spare time, I love to run. I am very involved in my local parkrun in Listowel. I also coach ladies’ football at underage level with my local ladies’ football club and did attempt to play ladies football for a few years with my local “Gaelic4Mothers&Others Team”! I may not have been the greatest football player, but I could run! And it was an hour each week where I could exercise in a fun environment with a fantastic group of women, who I remain friends with to this day.
My inspiration to write this book was my grandmother, Maureen Hennebry, nÊe Cashman. She was on the Cork camogie team which won the All-Ireland Camogie Championship three times in row between 1939 and 1941. She came from a family rich in GAA history, the Cashman’s of Blackrock in Cork, and is even mentioned in the following poem by the famous Irish poet, Patrick Kavanagh:

Camogie Match
Patrick Kavanagh 1905 - 1967

Bright shone the sunlight on Peggy and Doreen
Wild swung the ash sticks. Be careful astoreen;
Josie is getting into her stride now,
Kathleen is hurling with all her Cork pride now.
A shout from the side-line: Mark your man, Kathleen Cody.
Kathleen pucks it. I tell you that puck was a dotie.
The game is exciting, it is indeed really,
Maureen Cashman is tackling the bold Ide O’Kiely …

In hindsight, I am in awe of the fact that my grandmother and her teammates played camogie at such a high level at a time in Ireland, where a woman’s role was predominantly to be a wife and homemaker. Which comes to my reason for writing this book, my grandmother was my inspiration to write it, but my reason for writing it was to encourage all young girls to play sports. It is crucial for our wellbeing and development and we need to make it as normal for girls to play sport as it is for boys. The growing popularity of women’s sports in Ireland and further afield is so encouraging and we need to continue to develop this. As the current 20*20 campaign says, “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it”. I hope that my book can in some way help to normalise girls playing football and that both boys and girls will enjoy reading about Izzy’s adventures!

Visit the following websites for more information;
20*20 campaign - www.20x20.ie
Sport Ireland – www.sportireland.ie
Ladies Gaelic Football Association – www.ladiesgaelic.ie
Camogie Association – www.camogie.ie
Women in sport - www.womeninsport.org


Social Media Links
https://www.facebook.com/emmalarkinbooks/
https://twitter.com/emmalarkinbooks
https://www.instagram.com/emmalarkinbooks/



2 comments:

  1. This sounds like such a cute book! I'm sure that my nieces would love it. Thank you for sharing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome! I believe you neice would really enjoy it as it is a great story for young girls.

      Delete

The Headmaster's List by Melissa de la Cruz REVIEW

The Headmaster's List by Melissa de la Cruz 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 Blurb When fifteen-year-old Chris Moore is tragically killed in a car crash, Argy...