Cave of Secrets

by Morgan Llywelyn

Overview

Pirates and crooked rulers make seventeenth-century Ireland a dangerous place.

When Tom feels rejected by his father, he finds a secret second family among the group of smugglers who trade in and around Roaringwater Bay.

Though Tom doesn't know it, his family in the Big House is under huge pressure. His father has had savage losses in business; his mother is always sad and worried, and his sisters have no hopes for a good future. This is seventeenth-century Ireland when cut-throat interests control everybody and everything, and land-grabbing is the order of the day. Friend turns into foe, and loyalty counts for nothing.

From his new family, Tom learns all about boats and smuggling – and secret treasure. And then Tom discovers the best-kept secret of all ...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847173850
Publisher:	Irish American Book Company
Publication date:	08/29/2012
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	9 Years

About the Author

Historian and novelist Morgan Llywelyn was born in New York City, but after the death of her husband and parents in 1985 returned to Ireland to take up citizenship in the land of her grandparents and make her permanent home there. After making the shortlist for the United States Olympic Team in Dressage in 1975, but not making the team itself, she turned to writing historical novels exploring her Celtic roots. The most successful of these was Lion of Ireland - The Legend of Brian Boru, which was published in 1980 and has sold into the millions of copies. She received the Novel of the Year Award from the National League of American Penwomen for her novel The Horse Goddess as well as the Woman of the Year Award from the Irish-American Heritage Committee for Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish. The latter award was presented to her by Ed Koch, then-mayor of New York City. Morgan is also the author of A Pocket History of Irish Rebels for the O'Brien Pocket Books Series. In 1990 Morgan Llywelyn turned to writing for the young reader, with the publication of Brian Boru, Emperor of the Irish, a biography in the novelistic style, by The O'Brien Press, Dublin. For this book she won an Irish Children's Book Trust Bisto Award in 1991. Her second book for the young reader is Strongbow, The Story of Richard and Aoife (The O'Brien Press) 1992, for which she won a Bisto Award in the Historical Fiction category, 1993 and the Reading Association of Ireland Award, 1993. Her third novel for young readers, entitled Star Dancer, (The O'Brien Press) was drawn from her experience of the world of showjumping and dressage. She has also written The Vikings in Ireland, an exploration of what actually happened when the Norsemen landed in Ireland. Morgan's latest book for children is Pirate Queen, the story of Grace O'Malley, told partly through letters from Granuaile to her beloved son. It is a thrilling tale of adventure that brings this unorthodox and inspiring historical figure to life.

Editorial Reviews

This middle-grade historical novel set in Ireland during the mid-17th century is low on character and a little muddled in story but offers lots of history. Thirteen-year-old Tom Flynn's father ignores him or cuffs him, devoting his attention to keeping his land and spoiling his daughters. Tom's mother is sickly and withdrawn, and Tom escapes to the cliffs and caves of Roaringwater Bay by their home in West Cork. In those caves he discovers Donal, who speaks Irish and whose father, he says, is a king. Tom becomes intrigued by Donal's family, and Donal's small sister Maura attaches herself fiercely to "Tomflynn." Tom's father goes off to Dublin and beyond to secure his family's place in the shifting political landscape, and Donal's father supports his family by smuggling. Donal's family, who makes what they need and works the sea, opens Tom's eyes to a different life from the one his father is trying to secure. The secrets of the caves reveal not only what Donal's family does, but how Tom's mother is connected to them. The denouement involves a little more forgiveness and turnabout than one might reasonably expect. A lot of English and Irish history and culture is dropped in when the focus shifts away from Tom, slowing the storyline and frequently failing to compel; a coda explains the real historical characters around Tom and Donal. For those fascinated by Irish history, but probably not many more. (Historical fiction. 9-14)

Kirkus Reviews