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.
☆☆☆
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…………….
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…………….
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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/
This sounds like such a cute book! I'm sure that my nieces would love it. Thank you for sharing
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I believe you neice would really enjoy it as it is a great story for young girls.
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