Under the Hawthorn Tree Children of the Famine

makes a whole part of our history come alive, while it still remains a thrilling adventure tale. -- RTE Guide RTE Guide the powerful story of the survival of three children, alone, and against the odds. -- Publishing News Marita Conlon-Mckenna handles this appalling event in Irish history sensitively but never compromising the truth of hardship and human suffering. -- Jane Murphy - writeaway.org.uk (A) vivid picture of the Famine era ... fascinating and terrifying -- Evening Echo A great survival saga -- The Irish Independent makes a whole part of our history come alive, while it still remains a thrilling adventure tale. -- RTE Guide A sublime story ... I don't know any child who will not find this book enthralling. -- The Irish Times ... beautiful and moving ... historically true and fictionally vivid. -- The Sunday Times The Great Irish Famine of the 1840s has received more fictional treatment than almost any other period in Irish historical children's books. Writing about the Famine posed new challenges to writers for children. The traditional passivity linked to ideas about famine would need to be overcome by some kind of action. The intense and horrible suffering and disease would need to be confronted truthfully but without lurid sensationalism. Some sense of an ending would need to be provided. In Under the Hawthorn Tree, Marita Conlon-McKenna confronted these problems with honesty and simplicity: the plight of three children becomes a kind of pilgrimage. The search for survival is not merely that, but also a search to sustain family loyalty and preserve memory. -- The Big Guide to Irish Children's Books Brings the story of the Irish Famine thrillingly alive. -- The Irish Post