Sinéad O'Hart

"In both Irish and Welsh." My two favourite languages! I may not have learned to speak much Welsh in my 3 years working in Aberystwyth, (it's hard!), but I loved to listen to it being spoken all around me, and this kind of collaboration is lovely to see.

I’m Azooz 16 years old
My father and several family members were killed in the war, our home and school destroyed, and now I’m supporting my family alone
Your donation can buys me books, supplies, bringing me one step closer to the classroom & future

tinyurl.com/azooz9

in 1st century Judea, the corners of every field had to be left for the poor to pick crops for themselves, every seventh year *all* of the crops from fields and vineyards and orchards belonged to the poor, and all debts of all types were cancelled every 50th year.

And... I'm going to be there too! It's always an honour to be nominated for an @irishbookawards.bsky.social and I can't wait to celebrate with my brilliant illustrator @unawoods.bsky.social. Our book Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee is in the running for an award, alongside loads of other fab books. 📚

2 adults and 8 young people of various ages all stand in a room backstage on the Oliver Callan show. Some of them are holding books and there is an RTE Radio 1 backdrop

Did you catch our Elaina on the @rteradio1.bsky.social Oliver Callan show this morning?

Alongside host Oliver Callan and some enthusiastic young readers, we took a look at some of the excellent Irish titles from our winter reading lists. 

Listen back ⬇️
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...

Fascinating to see how closely this mirrors the Irish tale of Labhraidh Loingseach, the king with horse ears!

Here, lads! Voting for the @irishbookawards.bsky.social closes on Sunday (like, two days from now), so get yizzer votes in asap. Vote for MEEEE in the Children's Book of the Year (Junior) Category and I will be VERY delighted.

www.irishbookawards.ie/vote

Thank you, Gita! I'm glad you enjoyed the episode. This one was particularly riotous (and as much fun as it sounded). And we're 100% with you on the points Nate raises about diversity. 📚

Getting Storyshaped With Nathanael (Nate) Lessore Podcast Episode · Storyshaped · 06/11/2025 · 1h 3m

Really enjoyed the brilliant new #storyshaped @sineadohart.bsky.social & @susancahill.bsky.social with fab Nate Lessore!
Amid the hilarity, Nate has a serious point-without diverse authors we limit readership-the opposite is needed right now. #ukkidlit #kidlituk
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Creatives4Sudan Fundraising Auction — Keep Eyes On Sudan Creatives coming together to raise life-saving funds for the people escaping genocide in El-Fasher, Sudan

Creative pals, we need you! A group of us are running an auction to raise funds for the Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan. Sudanese people are dealing with the worst humanitarian crisis since records began. Can you donate mentoring/art/signed books etc? SIGN UP HERE: www.sudancoup.com/auction

Vote - Irish Book Awards AN POST IRISH BOOk AWARDS Public Vote 2025 Vote for your favourite books of the year here and win €100 of National Book Tokens Scroll down and vote for your favourite books and be in with a chance of ...

You've still got time to have your say in this year's @irishbookawards.bsky.social - and you could WIN some book tokens for your trouble!

Throw us an aul vote for #ElloraMcGeeTraineeBanshee, willya?

www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/

They revoked Wole Soyinka’s US visa? I keep typing reactions and deleting them. Another new low.

🎬✨ Behind the scenes at our 2025 Shortlist Launch!
From laughter and interviews to stacks of incredible books, here’s a look at what made our GPO event so special.

Now it’s over to you — help decide this year’s winners!

🗳️ Vote here: scxo9qtv33a.typeform.com/apiba25-vote

Today With Claire Byrne Wednesday 29 October 2025 Mid-morning show with Claire Byrne featuring stories of the day, sharp analysis and features.

So grateful to Jennie Loughran, @lorimoriarty.bsky.social, @clairebyrne.bsky.social and @rteradio1.bsky.social for featuring Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee, by @unawoods.bsky.social and me. Skip to 1:47 for the books segment!

@irishkidsbooks.bsky.social

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Delighted to have joined @unawoods.bsky.social at @halfwayupbooks.bsky.social yesterday for some banshee shenanigans!

If you haven't voted for us in the Children's Book of the Year (Junior) Category over at @irishbookawards.bsky.social, whaddya waiting for?

www.irishbookawards.ie

YouTube video by The Booker Prizes Announcing the Children's Booker Prize | The Booker Prize

FABULOUS news!
The Children’s Booker Prize supported by AKO Foundation will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged 8-12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland
#worldkidlit #UkKidLit #irishkidlit #xl8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTw...

There is a silver bullet for childhood happiness: a love of reading Bestselling children’s author Katherine Rundell says to reverse the reading crisis we must let young people rediscover the enjoyment of books — whatever they may be

It's sunday so I am finally reading the links I opened during the week. Or possibly last week. Anyway, this one is worth your time (should be a free link, it was for me at least). Katherine Rundell on reading for pleasure. #UKKidLit #KidLitUK www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...

Shortlisted books for the Soecsavers Children's Book of the Year 2025 (Junior Category) in the An Post Irish Book Awards. Top row, left to right: Badger Books, by Paddy Donnelly; An Fia Sa Choill, by Sadhbh Devlin and Anastasia Melynkova; Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee: The New School, by Sinéad O'Hart and Úna Woods; Don't Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat. Bottom row, left to right: Penguin TV by Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher; Run Home Little Fox, by Tom McCaughren, Erika McGann, Shannon Bergin; Letters To a Monster by Patricia Forde and Sarah Warburton; Once I Was A Tree by Eoin McLaughlin and Guilherme Karsten.

@unawoods.bsky.social is up for the @irishbookawards.bsky.social! (Well, okay, with a book I did the words for.) If you'd like to vote for Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee: The New School (and thank you, if you do!) head on over to:

www.irishbookawards.ie

You might win yourself a Book Token!

Yesssssss they're incredible. One of my fave series in recent years.

Mwahahahaaaa I love being a book-pusher (especially when it's involving Irish mythology!)

1/ We can’t wait to welcome our good friends @sineadohart.bsky.social & @unawoods.bsky.social this coming Sat at 3pm! They will read and draw front their brilliant new book, Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee. You can order a copy to be signed here halfwayupthestairs.ie/product/9781...

Struzan by himself

RIP the legendary Drew Struzan (1947-2025) 😩

Even though we were expecting the news any day now, it makes me very sad. What an artist.

E.T. Adventure poster, 1990. I still have one of these hanging in my childhood bedroom.

Star Wars Special edition triptych, 1997. I remember seeing all of these in the paper as each film was re-released and just felt a burst of energy those mornings.

Hook poster, 1991

Back to the Future poster, 1985

Heartbroken that, per his social media accounts, Drew Struzan has left us. His poster and album art was quite simply shorthand for imagination for countless young people.

The ancient ones performed feats of memory, as their culture required them to commit long strings of numbers to their mind palaces.

This is going to be amazing! Piu crafted such an incredibly rich story in The Secret of the Snakestone and I can't wait for the next adventure.

Hugely grateful to @tipperarylibraries.bsky.social and the brilliant Storyfinders of Cashel and Killenaule for showing me how bright and brilliant their imaginations are! We had tons of fun being Trainee Banshees and Making Mythology as part of #ChildrensBookFestival2025.

Front cover of Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee: The New School, written by Sinéad O'Hart and illustrated by Úna Woods. There's a graphic on the left which looks like a sticker announcing it as 'Recommended by Children's Books Ireland'.

Covers of all the books in the Eason/CBI quarterly book promotion. From left to right, top row: The Waters and the Wild by Eilish Fisher; The Museum of Lost Umbrellas by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick; The Moon Seeker by Dee Barragry; The Grand Central Comedy Club by Alan Nolan. Second row from top, left to right: Strange Nature, by Mary Watson; Dino Mode Activated, by Jen Wallace and illustrated by Alan O'Rourke; Any Way You Slice It by Méabh O'Donnell; Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee: The New School, by Sinéad O'Hart, illustrated by Úna Woods. Third row, left to right: Puisín na mBróg by Fergus MacLochlainn, illustrated by Paddy Donnelly; The Cloud Kingdom by Máire Zepf, illustrated by Andrew Whitson; Milo and the Mountain, by Jamie Carroll; Nature at Night by Dara McAnulty. Fourth row, left to right: Oíche Mhaith, a Ghrá! by Sadhbh Devlin, illustrated by Brian Fitzgerald; Lantern Smoke by Dagogo Hart and Anita Schmidt, and This That What by Katy Ashworth and Colleen Larmour.

Delighted and honoured to announce that Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee: The New School is one of several BRILLIANT books chosen by @childrensbooksireland.ie and Eason as their quarterly Recommended Irish Reads. Check them out in your local branch of Eason! And keep an eye out for signed copies...

Cover of Run Home Little Fox by Tom McCaughren and Erika McGann, illustrated by Shannon Bergin. An illustrated baby fox runs through lush woodland.

Front cover of Flossie McFluff Saves Christmas, by Eoin O'Brien and Audrey Dowling. Fairy character appears inside a green wreath on a jolly red background.

Excellent #BookPost from @theobrienpress.bsky.social today! Wonderful to revisit the world of Tom McCaughren with @erikamcgann.bsky.social and @shannonbergin.bsky.social, and it's a heartwarming tale of Flossie McFluff with Eoin O'Brien and Audrey Dowling. Out next week! #IrishKidsBooks

Three people (two men and a woman) sit around a table on set in the Ireland AM studio. They are sitting around a display of six children's books. They are all looking at the camera and smiling.

What a way to start the week!

Our CEO Elaina Ryan visited the Ireland AM studio this morning with a selection of brilliant children's books as featured in our latest reading guide The Best Irish Books of 2025 📚

Check out the books & watch the show back:
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...

Piles of books on a bookshop table, including Ellora McGee Trainee Banshee

Piles of books on a bookshop table, including Ellora McGee Trainee Banshee

A display of books on a bookshop wall, featuring Ellora McGee Trainee Banshee on the top shelf

Me, a fat, white woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing purple glasses, a blue coat, dark jeans, purple boots, a flower-patterned blouse and a black-and-white keffiyeh, holding two copies of my book Ellora McGee Trainee Banshee. Books on shelves are either side of me. Behind me is a wall painted blue with the light green letters of the word Dubray fixed on it. This photo was taken in Dubray Books in Galway.

Huge thanks to Easons of Gorey and Rathmines, as well as @dubraybooks.bsky.social Galway, for keeping Ellora McGee on your shelves and tables! It always lifts the heart to see such support for a new book. And thanks to shops everywhere for stocking our brave little Banshee!

@unawoods.bsky.social