All to Play For

uplifting

* Irish Examiner *

a resounding thumbs up from our 8yo boy … about an ordinary club footballer just like him, except she’s a girl. Great work by Donn McClean

-- RTE Sport's Evanne Ni Chuilinn

a moving and heartfelt story

-- Children's Books Ireland's ‘Mind Yourself’ Reading Guide

Growing up is never easy! It’s not any easier when you move to a new town and school. Anna must deal with this anxiety, as well as cope with the loss of her father. Anna and her father loved Gaelic football and her game falters without his support. All to Play For by Donn McClean tells the story of how Anna struggles with the grief of her loss, while she tries to help her new team win the county final. A moving and heartfelt story.

* Children's Books Ireland *

Football is everything to Anna and, like many keen sportspeople, she has a special talisman to bring her luck In her case, it’s a pair of bright orange football socks, which she believes guarantee her good fortune when she wears them in a match. The socks, as it turns out, are far more than a lucky-charm fashion item to Anna, while Donn McClean’s novel for early teens is far more substantial than your average story of sporting trials and triumphs. Such tales are legion: They tell of team-building, camaraderie, and injury scares; the agonisingly narrow defeat to the arch rivals, and the blow-by-blow match report of the final, inevitably won by the underdogs against all odds. McClean, a sports-writer specialising in horse-racing and an analyst on TV and radio, mixes many of these familiar ingredients to good effect and this is, indeed, a story of sporting triumph over adversity, though not in the conventional sense. Though the action on the pitch is gritty and physical, the real driving force at the heart of the novel is a compelling story of grief and acceptance…McClean is able to explore weighty themes including bullying and the many stages of grief, as well as the complex feelings surrounding new relationships formed by bereaved parents. What’s refreshingly different about this novel is the visceral physicality of the emotions displayed by its strong female characters, the punches and tackles on the football field flowing as readily as the rivers of tears Anna sheds along the way

* Evening Echo *

A 13-year-old girl’s story of loss and life, shot through her experiences with her new football team. It is poignant in places, inspirational in others and a reminder that life is never straightforward

* Irish Times *

A moving novel about a girl who loves Gaelic football

* Irish Independent *

The protagonist is a teenage girl, something of a first for Irish sports fiction. The story of how Anna navigates a family tragedy, a new town, new school, and new ladies football team makes for a gripping and sometimes poignant narrative

* Irish Examiner *

perfect for the summer holidays

* Croke Pa