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Summary
Summary
Mary O'Hara is a sharp and cheeky 12-year-old Dublin schoolgirl who is bravely facing the fact that her beloved Granny is dying. But Granny can't let go of life, and when a mysterious young woman turns up in Mary's street with a message for her Granny, Mary gets pulled into an unlikely adventure. The woman is the ghost of Granny's own mother, who has come to help her daughter say good-bye to her loved ones and guide her safely out of this world. She needs the help of Mary and her mother, Scarlett, who embark on a road trip to the past. Four generations of women travel on a midnight car journey. One of them is dead, one of them is dying, one of them is driving, and one of them is just starting out.
Praise for A Greyhound of a Girl
STARRED REVIEW "A warm, witty, exquisitely nuanced multigenerational story."
- Kirkus Reviews , starred review
STARRED REVIEW "This elegantly constructed yet beautifully simple story, set in Ireland and spun with affection by Booker Prize-winner Doyle, will be something different for YA readers. These four lilting voices will linger long after the book is closed."
- Booklist , starred review
STARRED REVIEW
"Written mostly in dialogue, at which Doyle excels, and populated with a charming foursome of Irish women, this lovely tale is as much about overcoming the fear of death as it is about death itself."
- Publishers Weekly , starred review
"In this moving and artfully structured ghost tale, four generations of Irish women come together. A big part of the pleasure here is the rhythm of the language and the contrasting voices of the generations. Any opportunity to read it aloud would be a treat."
- Horn Book
"For children grieving the death of a parent or grandparent, this book provides comfort."
- Library Media Connection
Award:
Capitol Choices 2013 - Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens
Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices 2013 list - Young Adult Fiction
USBBY Outstanding International Books List 2013
Author Notes
Roddy Doyle is the author of five previous novels, including a Booker Prize nominee, The Van, and a Booker Prize winning international bestseller Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. He has also written several screenplays, most recently When Brendan Met Trudy. His first children's book, The Giggler Treatment, will be published in September by Scholastic. He lives in Dublin.
(Publisher Provided)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Doyle revisits the subject of his picture book, Her Mother's Face (2008), with this trim novel about a comforting ghost who helps a family deal with the loss of a loved one. Mary O'Hara, 12, hates her daily trips to the Dublin hospital where her beloved grandmother, Emer, is dying, presumably from old age. Returning from school one day, Mary meets Tansey, who seems vaguely familiar even though she is dressed "like a woman who milked cows and threw hay with a pitchfork." Mary's mother, Scarlett (yes, Doyle has named a character Scarlett O'Hara), figures out that Tansey is the ghost of Emer's mother, who died suddenly of the flu in 1928, when Emer was only three. (Doyle is writing from a personal place: his mother lost her mother at a very early age and grew up with the profound sadness of not being able to remember what she looked like.) Written mostly in dialogue, at which Doyle excels, and populated with a charming foursome of Irish women, this lovely tale is as much about overcoming the fear of death as it is about death itself. Ages 9-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In this moving and artfully structured ghost tale, four generations of Irish women come together. At first they relate only as intertwined stories, as twelve-year-old Mary OHaras narrative of the usual middle-grade challenges is punctuated with scenes from the lives of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother as children and young women. Eventually, however, all the generations meet in a real scene as the four -- "one of them dead, one of them dying, one of them driving, one of them just starting out" -- head off on an expedition to a family home of days gone by. The confidence and matter-of-factness of Doyles style dissolve potential reader skepticism about the ghost in the back seat. There is no wispiness about great-grandmother Tansey, who died of influenza as a young mother. She is made of history, sorrow, and determination. Her explanation of her kind of ghost: "They dont go away, after the funeral. They linger. To make sure that everything is grand and the people they love are getting on with their lives." A big part of the pleasure here is the rhythm of the language and the contrasting voices of the generations. Any opportunity to read it aloud would be a treat. sarah ellis (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Mary, Scarlett, Ember, Tansy. Four generations of the same family. Mary is 12; Scarlett is her mother; Ember, Mary's grandmother, is dying; and Tansy, Ember's mother and Mary's great-grandmother, is a ghost. Isn't it grand? This elegantly constructed yet beautifully simple story, set in Ireland and spun with affection by Booker Prize-winner Doyle, will be something different for YA readers. It's Mary who first spots Tansy, and she assumes she's a new, albeit odd, neighbor. As readers learn through the twisting narrative, Tansy died of the flu when Ember was just three. Now, it is Ember who is dying. Tansy, tethered to this world by guilt, wants to comfort her daughter in ways she was unable to while Ember was growing up. Will Mary and Scarlett help her? That's the bare bones, but the heart and soul are found in the stories of each life. Sometimes told in separate chapters, sometimes intertwined into the contemporary narrative, they describe the sweet moments and heartaches that come to everyone and crystallize how events long in the past affect the present. There's more than a touch of magic realism as Mary and Scarlett readily accept Tansy's ghostliness, but the love they feel for each other is bedrock. These four lilting voices will linger long after the book is closed.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-"Cheeky," Dublin-raised Mary O'Hara, 12, is "not a little girl anymore," but she is still a child in many ways. With her beloved grandmother, Emer, dying in the hospital, Mary meets Tansey, her great-grandmother's ghost. Tansey has returned to assure Emer that dying is not so bad and "it'll all be grand." The narrative skips between time periods and the point of view alters among the perspectives of Mary, her mother, Emer, and Tansey. Readers learn that Tansey died of the flu in 1928 when Emer was only three and has been lingering near her ever since. The four generations of women go on a late-night road trip to the old family farm and the sea, a journey that allows them to learn about one another and helps them cope with past and future losses. The Irish dialect may delight some readers but frustrate others. Windows into the past give depth and meaning to each woman's struggle. The theme that love and affection are handed down through generations of women is a bit understated, but that's part of its charm. Occasionally, the frequent dialogue becomes tiresome and reads more like poetry. Pair this book with Jacqueline Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Holt, 2009). An affecting story about growing up, family, life, and death.-Richelle Roth, Boone County Public Library, KY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
There will come a day when your children start to ask you questions about your own childhood. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, so it may be a few minutes before you realise that it's not exactly you they're asking about. Your past has become The Past. You're history. It's a bitter moment, all the more bitter if you belong to my generation. My parents could at least regale me with tales of the Blitz, the evacuation, war hero fathers returning from the sea. What tale did I have to tell? Decimalisation. Mary O'Hara, the heroine of Roddy Doyle's beautiful new novel, doesn't ask about the past: it comes up and taps her on the shoulder in the shape of the ghost of her great-grandmother, Tansey. Mary's grandmother Emer is ill, about to die, and Tansey has a message for her. Mary's mother, Scarlet, has to help her daughter pass on that message. It's a story about four generations of women and what they have to say to each other. The men are far in the background, busy at their PlayStations. In one very funny scene, Mary's brothers do see Tansey's ghost, and leave the room - scared not because she's a ghost, but because there are too many women in a confined space. This is also a story about death and how to prepare for it. Children's literature is going through a bit of a deathsploitation phase at the moment. Book lists are groaning with the cries of the dying and the undead. But A Greyhound of a Girl is different, and the difference is Tansey. Opinionated, easy-going, profoundly unspooky, Tansey is the best ghost since Christmas Past. Her casual attitude to the business of haunting brilliantly embodies the book's theme - that what lives on is not ectoplasm, but family. What will survive of us is love. It's a measure of Doyle's mastery that he doesn't let her run away with the story, but leaves plenty of room for the other three women. This is an uncluttered book, though you sense that its luminous simplicity was only achieved by spending hours and hours bagging up all the unnecessary stuff and hauling it to the dump. Yes, they go on a road trip, but only down to the seaside to buy ice-cream. And what an ice-cream. One of the virtues of simplicity is that it provides a great backdrop for the moments of exuberance. I won't spoil it for you; I'll just say that Tansey's entrance with the ice-cream is an immortal moment. The book's simplicity comes from the fact that, like the Barrytown trilogy, it is very dialogue-driven. It's a reminder that Doyle (below) is one of the best writers of dialogue there has ever been. A Greyhound of a Girl has all that Barrytown strut and swagger. No, not swagger - sway. It dances. It dances on the grave. Frank Cottrell Boyce's The Unforgotten Coat is published by Walker. To order A Greyhound of a Girl for pounds 8.79 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846. - Frank Cottrell Boyce Mary O'Hara, the heroine of Roddy Doyle's beautiful new novel, doesn't ask about the past: it comes up and taps her on the shoulder in the shape of the ghost of her great-grandmother, Tansey. Mary's grandmother Emer is ill, about to die, and Tansey has a message for her. Mary's mother, Scarlet, has to help her daughter pass on that message. It's a story about four generations of women and what they have to say to each other. The men are far in the background, busy at their PlayStations. In one very funny scene, Mary's brothers do see Tansey's ghost, and leave the room - scared not because she's a ghost, but because there are too many women in a confined space. - Frank Cottrell Boyce.
Kirkus Review
Twelve-year-old Mary O'Hara is surrounded by good-humored women her mum at home, her mum's mum, who is dying in Dublin's Sacred Heart Hospital, and her mum's mum's mum, who has just materialized as a ghost on her street. That's four generations of Irish women, all whirling about in some state of consciousness or another, and it's enough to make Mary dizzy. Mary is a cheeky girl, like many almost-teenagers, but she's level-headed enough to embrace the ghostly visits from her great-grandmother Tansey, who looks young but "talks old" because she died at age 25 in 1928. Tansey's spirit is sticking around for her dying daughter, Mary's granny, to reassure her "it'll all be grand" in the great beyond and, as it turns out, to join her family for one last tearful, mirthful midnight road trip. Doyle divides up the novel by character, giving readers first-hand glimpses into the nature of each woman through time. In a lovely, lilting Irish dialect, he deftly explores the common threads of their lives through story and memory, from family-owned racing greyhounds to the traumatic dropping of an egg. On the subject of mortality, Mary says, "it just seems mean." Her mother agrees. "It does seem mean. Especially when it's someone you love." Indeed. A warm, witty, exquisitely nuanced multigenerational story. (Fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
