Children’s book set in Kilkenny hits the shelves

Jessica Scott-Whyte was living in Paris when her debut children’s novel The Asparagus Bunch was published in 2022. She felt a sense of detachment from the release and reception in Ireland, and while she made trips home, she couldn’t indulge the authorly impulse to stake out the bookshop window.

She could, however, glimpse into readers’ minds by checking the book’s borrowing records on the Libraries Ireland website. Strangely, she noticed an especially high volume of loans from Kilkenny libraries.

“Maybe people in Kilkenny are fond of my humour,” she mused, and the county lodged in her imagination. It became the setting for her second book, Séamus Almost Famous, the story of a ten-year-old boy from Callan who lives in the shadow of his famous family’s success.

From his sister appearing on The Late Late Toy Show to Henry Shefflin requesting an autograph from his sporting-savant brother, Séamus cannot escape his family’s incessant triumphs and sets about establishing himself in the public eye.

Scott-Whyte still lives in Paris with her partner and three children, and she grew up in Goatstown, Dublin. Her godfather, aunt, and cousins are from Castlecomer, however, and since she began writing Séamus Almost Famous, she has made several visits to Kilkenny City and to Callan. “I knew I wanted to base it in Kilkenny, and then Callan proved to be, geographically speaking, a good location for what happens in the story,” Scott-Whyte explained.

The Kilkenny-specific details will have children and parents turning its pages in anticipation of finding some reference to their own familiar Kilkenny. Such was our uncanny experience when, pages in, we were introduced to Declan, a zealous but well-meaning reporter for the Kilkenny People.

Having long documented the exploits of Séamus’ illustrious family, Declan counsels Séamus in his pursuit of notoriety, advising on what it takes to make the front page and delivering hard truths when Séamus’ antics lack discernable newsworthiness. Declan, who Scott-Whyte assures us bears no likeness to any real-life Kilkenny People journalists, will reappear in the sequel to Séamus Almost Famous, where she is excited to continue the story of this most unlikely of antiheroes.

Read next.

Through its comedy, Séamus Almost Famous animates family dynamics that many children will find relatable. Scott-Whyte said: “For me, as a mum of three, I tend to notice on a daily basis with my own kids – they're nine, six, and three years old, so, you know, still quite young – [that] there is an awful lot of kind of jostling to find everyone's place in the family. There is a lot of sibling comparisons and rivalry that's sort of par for the course.” The “essence” of the story, she said, “is that families are all chaotic and messy, and it rarely kind of goes according to plan.” She believes people find humour in “a universal truth like that.”

To Scott-Whyte, comedy is a tonic in times of digital malaise and diminishing attention spans, particularly for kids. She finds “if there's any way that, as a writer, you can do something to kind of put stuff out there, put material out there that can help encourage or foster that level reading with kids,” that such is a worthy pursuit. “And I think, in particular, we have so much that we can do in the space of comedy,” she added. Scott-Whyte is encouraged by the idea that “a comedian standing there with no major props, just with a glass of water and a microphone” can “hold an audience for a long period of time, laughing and being entertained.” For children, she said, “comedy is really a currency – when they're with friends and when they're hanging out.”

Séamus Almost Famous is available now in bookshops and libraries. It is published by Gill and illustrated by Becka Moor.