The Lantern Moon

by Maeve Friel

Stylish historical fiction from a major name in Irish children's literature Life is not easy for children in 1811. Annie Spears is a maid at Dinham house where Lucien Bonaparte is on parole. Her brother William makes silk top-hats for the mad hatter, while her little sister works as a glove-maker for the despicable Leonard Evans. They have not heard from their father since he was transported to Australia years ago. When a fire destroys the Spears home and William and Annie are accused of theft, they take to the hills with Sam, the chimney sweep, trying to make their way to the sea—but great danger and deceptions lie ahead.

156 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

I was born in Derry (Northern Ireland) where I went to Thornhill College and then studied sociology in University College Dublin. I have lived all over the place since then and have worked as a teacher, a translator, a secretary and a tour guide before taking up full time writing.

I wrote several short stories for adults which were broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Then I wrote Irrational Developments, a story inspired by the protests about water shortages in a small Spanish village. It was published in the Sunday Tribune and went on to win the 1990 Hennessy Literary Award. That encouraged me to keep writing.

Since then I have written 19 books for children of all ages as well as lots of short stories which appear in many anthologies. I live in Dublin and also have a hideaway in that same small Spanish village where I am surrounded by orange orchards.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a kid years ago, saw it on the shelf the other day and had no recollection of what it was about so I decided to re-read. I enjoyed the historical elements, the sibling love, the friendship with the chimney sweep and the realism of not having a totally fairytale ending in that they get transported to Australia towards the end. Overall, I think it’s a very nice children’s book.

[Carina · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has been a number of years since I last read this book and I don't know if it was because I remembered reading this fondly or not, but I was rather disappointed in this.

My Mother got this for me when I was about 9/10 years old, and I remember enjoying it because it is set in my home town of Ludlow. Reading this now, when I can actually recall where things are in Ludlow, this isn't as ... apt as I recalled it as a child. For example - Offa's Dyke would take them to Chepstow - getting from there to Bristol would have involved the main roads of the time which the children were at risk on but from the way the book describes it the Dyke leads to Bristol.

This was also a lot shorter than I remembered it being. Granted this is a small book so picking it up again when I was at Ludlow for a visit I knew it would only be a few hours read - then I opened it and found a larger font than I recalled. As it was at 156 pages I was able to read this in about 30 minutes.

I'm aware that this is aimed at children, but even so the ending is just too... perfect, too easy. Even as a child I remember feeling the ending was abrupt though I didn't care about such things then.

All in all this is very clearly a childrens book, and the re-read value will again depend on the age of the child - I re-read it multiple times when I was younger but I doubt I will pick this up again save to give it to a child.