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WINNER of the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards Honour Award for Illustration.
Shortlisted for the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards.
Shortlisted for the 2025 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards.
"Colfer and McCarthy are a dazzling duo in this endlessly entertaining retelling of banshee folklore. McCarthy's illustrations elevate this story, making it a genuine work of art filled with familiar Irish iconography that readers will adore." - The Irish Examiner
Banshees are supernatural Irish harbingers of doom, but ... where do they come from? The answer: they grow in pods on the prickly gorse bush. The sole job of a baby banshee, a "bansheenie" as they are called, is to bond with a human. Once bonded, they know everything about that person. Most importantly ... when they will die.
Our bansheenie, named Beanie, is no ordinary herald of death. When she sees her person, a little girl called Rose, she decides to change her own - and Rose's - fate, and instead of delivering bad news, Beanie wants to protect Rose and her family. When her banshee's howl of doom won't work, she must draw power and strength from the ancient secrets and hidden networks of the natural world around her. She must create a brand new sound, a new way of being in the world that will change ... everything.
About the author
Eoin (pronounced “Owen”) Colfer is the New York Times bestselling author of the children’s fantasy series Artemis Fowl. His other notable works include Half Moon Investigations, Airman and The Supernaturalist and he has sold over twenty million books worldwide. He was the Irish Children’s Laureate, the winner of the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, and won the Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award for his story Imaginary Fred, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. He lives in Wexford, Ireland. You can visit him online at www.eoincolfer.com.Steve McCarthy is an Irish designer, illustrator, and bearded gentleman. His debut author-illustrator title, The Wilderness, won the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2023 Honour award for illustration and was shortlisted for a Carnegie Medal for Illustration. He illustrated Beanie the Bansheenie by Eoin colfer, which won the 2025 KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards Honour Award for Illustration and was shortlisted for the 2024 An Post Irish Book Award and the 2025 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards. Steve comes from working as a background designer, most notably for the animated feature film Song of the Sea, which was nominated for an academy award in 2015. He lives in southeast London. Find Steve online at www.mrstevemccarthy.com, and on Twitter and Instagram as @mrstevemccarthy.
Report
Colfer and McCarthy are a dazzling duo in this endlessly entertaining retelling of banshee folklore. McCarthy's illustrations elevate this story, making it a genuine work of art filled with familiar Irish iconography that readers will adore. The Irish Examiner
