Specsavers Children's Book of the Year (Senior)

Shortlist 2022

The Lost Girl King by Catherine Doyle

The Lost Girl King

By Catherine Doyle

Amy and Liam Bell have been packed off to stay at Gran’s house in the wilds of Connemara for the summer. Out for a walk on the first morning of their holiday, they trace the flight of a hawk to a nearby waterfall – only to watch the bird disappear through it. Intrigued, the children follow and soon realise they’ve discovered the entrance to Tír na nÓg, the legendary land of eternal youth.

But they’ve been tricked. Almost immediately Liam is captured by a troop of headless horsemen who take him to Tarlock, the ruling sorcerer of Tír na nÓg, who is seeking the bones of a human child for a sinister new spell.

Packed with edge-of-your seat adventure, incredible imagination, humour and warmth, The Lost Girl King is the rare kind of story that has you reading long past lights out.

About Catherine Doyle...

Catherine Doyle grew up beside the Atlantic Ocean in the west of Ireland. Her love of reading began with great Irish myths and legends, and fostered in her an ambition to one day write her own. She is the author of the bestselling Storm Keeper trilogy, set on the magical island of Arranmore where her grandparents grew up. The first book in the trilogy, The Storm Keeper’s Island, won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the IBW Children’s Book Award. Catherine lives in Galway.

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