Little Bang

McCaughrain uses the backdrop of the Repeal the Eight campaign south of the Border to good effect… This is a nuanced and thoughtful engagement with the issues, rather than a polemic; the teenage and adult characters are fully developed and complex. A smart, deeply moving book. * Irish TImes *This novel is authentic, using humour and heartbreak to cover a difficult subject. It is understated and adeptly written, with honesty and respect for its characters and its audience. * The Best Irish Children’s Books 2024’, The Sunday Times (Ireland) *Full of authentic humour, youthful hyperbole and hope… McCaughrain is careful not to be didactic or reductive. In the end this is a story about young relationships and concerns with believable, sympathetic characters. – Books of the Year * The Big Issue *Drawing on the events surrounding the 2018 Irish referendum on the eight amendment, McCaughrain shines a harsh light on the lack of sexual education for teenagers in school systems, opening the space for all to enter and discuss. * Children’s Books Ireland, Editor’s Choice *This is a story that needs to be told and the authenticity and sensitivity with which it is told, bears witness to the award-winning author’s direct experience in schools and the stories she has heard from young people… Moving, compassionate and beautifully told this is an essential and important taboo- breaking book for young people to read. * LoveReading4Kids *

Kelly McCaughrain’s debut novel, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, won an unprecedented hat-trick of awards at the 2019 Children’s Books Ireland Awards, including Book of the Year, as well as the Northern Ireland Book Award. Kelly was the Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland 2019-2021 and she works at Belfast Met College as educational support for young adults with special needs. She says: “I get my best ideas from observing teens. I love their high ideals and natural barometer for injustice. I always want to write things that are worthy of their huge capacity to scrutinise the world and their place in it.” When she isn’t writing, she likes to travel with her 1967 classic campervan, Gerda, and her 1977 classic husband, Michael.