Children's Books: Riverside Spring Fever

RIVERSIDE: SPRING FEVER, reviewed by Peter Regan

Peter Regan's series about the Under-11s Riverside soccer team based in Bray is one of the most successful and enduring series in modern Irish publishing. The only sad thing about Spring Fever, the latest volume, is that it may be the last for Jimmy, the narrator, who is sitting his Leaving Certificate and will move into another stage of his life.

However, shed no tears for Jimmy just yet, because Spring Fever is full of laughs and thrills and sharp characters and excellent dialogue that gives us a wonderful, all-inclusive view of life in Bray. Not only does Peter Regan write with all the skill of an expert on soccer, but he also demonstrates his sharp, satiric touch in a series of accurately-observed details of the adult world with which Jimmy and his mates  have to cope. Jimmy's Dad is in recovery from his gambling addiction. Jimmy's sister, to everyone's amazement, has got herself a fiancée. Someone is stealing food from the buffet of the Old Bray Historical Society. Has Victor accidentally filmed a runaway building-society robber? Will Little Hitler scupper ther team's chances of success? What's the story of the fat man living in the big house?

Brilliantly controlled pace  that encompasses an amazing number of plots in its comparatively short length. One for boys who think they don't like to read.

RIVERSIDE: SPRING FEVER by Terry Myler. Published by The Children's Press. €5.99 (ages 11+)