Red Banana Books are for newly fluent readers so if you have a football mad youngster who you’re struggling to persuade to pick up a book, then this one is perfect. Plenty of humour and with illustrations on every page, some of which include speech bubbles for added fun, the story is guaranteed to build confidence and it’s a story that they’ll then come back to time and time again. Seamus is the protagonist in the story; he’s football mad and when he finds a whole load of ghosts who say they’re bored he decides to help them form a football team. They’re so good they might even win the World Cup!
When Seamus and his scaredy-ba Granda go for a night-time walk, they don't expect to find a group of ghosts in an old barn. Greg the Ghoul, Phantom Pete and friends are too scared to go up into heaven, in case they are sent back down to hell, so they are just waiting around in the barn, getting bored. Seamus has an idea to relieve their boredom - they should form a football team and play other ghosts! The ghosts are nervous, but Seamus and his Granda help them get fit and improve their game. Soon they are champion players, powering their way through teams on earth, heaven and even hell!
Malachy Doyle is the author of Digger and Lew, Big Pig, Teddybear Blue, Antonio on the Other Side of the World, Getting Smaller and Too Noisy, illustrated by Ed Vere.
His first teenage novel, Georgie, won the Tir na n-Og prize and his picture book, Cow, won an English Association Award for non-fiction. He also won the 2002 White Raven Award for Hungry! Hungry! He lives with his family (and his cat, dog, ducks and hens) in County Donegal, Ireland.
