A Girl Called Blue - New edition
| By: | Marita Conlon-McKenna |
| Publisher: | O'Brien Press Ltd |
| Published: | February 2022 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Categories: | Children |
| Language: | English |
| Available as: | Paperback |
| On sale at: |
The orphanage is the only home Blue has ever known. She is desperate to find out who she really is. The closed file in stern Sister Regina's office holds the secret of her identity. And that is forbidden territory ... Larch Hill is the only home Blue knows. She arrived there just a few days old, wrapped in a blue blanket. Her one hope is to find her mother or father and have a family of her own. Fostered out several times, Blue finds it difficult to fit in. Is there no one out there who really wants her? No one who can really love her? Blue must put up with the orphanage, with the distant and strict care of the nuns. She does have her friends, Mary and Jessie and Molly and Lil, but they're not family. They're not enough. In her heart, Blue is desperate to find out who she really is. The closed file in stern Sister Regina's office holds the secret of her identity. And that is forbidden territory ... 'the details of the girls' daily lives and the characters of Blue, Sister Monica and Jimmy Mooney catch and sustain the reader's interest' -- Lesley Martin - The School Librarian * The School Librarian * 'there is a sense of moderation rather than sentimentality in Conlon-McKenna's writing, in so much as, the misfortunes and joys that befall Blue are very much within the realms of reality and probability. Set in the late 1960's, young modern readers should find its treatment of universal themes such as friendship, hope and acceptance relevant as well as poignant.' -- Deborah Buley - writeaway.org.uk Born in Dublin in 1956 and brought up in Goatstown, Marita went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mount Anville, later working in the family business, the bank, and a travel agency. She has four children with her husband James, and they live in the Stillorgan area of Dublin. Marita was always fascinated by the Famine period in Irish history and read everything available on the subject. When she heard a radio report of an unmarked children's grave from the Famine period being found under a hawthorn tree, she decided to write her first book, Under the Hawthorn Tree. Published in May 1990, the book was an immediate success and become a classic. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, including Arabic, Bahasa, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and Irish. The book has been read on RTE Radio and is very popular in schools, both with teachers and pupils. It has been made a supplementary curriculum reader in many schools and is also used by schools in Northern Ireland for EMU (Education through Mutual Understanding) projects. It was also filmed by Young Irish Film Makers, in association with RTE and Channel 4. This is available as a DVD.
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