New children’s book from Ciara
Writing a book is not an easy venture, but for Nenagh children’s author Ciara Morrissey, inspiration was not a problem. After all, she had her cherished son Billy. Despite living with autism, the seven-year-old could “light up a room with his smile” and is equally adored by both his mother and his father James. The blonde haired, blue-eyed young man features heavily in Ciara’s latest publication, The Twelve Rhymes of Christmas, a heart-warming collection of poetic rhymes that evokes all the regular themes of the festive season and tells short, easy-to-read stories suitable for children aged 3 to 7.
This is not Ciara’s first work. Last spring, she launched her debut publication in Eason’s, Billy and Friends, which was also inspired by her young son. It was met with a great reception, and so Ciara, who has a natural aptitude for producing short and catchy nursery rhymes, decided she would take on another project. Writers come in different styles, and Ciara is living proof of that. She isn’t a literary fanatic and doesn’t consider herself particularly strong at writing prose, but rhyming is most certainly her forte.
“Rhyming, for whatever reason, seems to come naturally to me. Free-handwriting wouldn’t be my strength, but rhyming just comes to me.”
She also has a creative flair. Billy, she says, has high standards when it comes to stories. He found it difficult to relate to regular books, so Ciara was forced to improvise in order to capture his imagination.
“I used to read him books and he’d never like the story. So, I would make up my own story. And I would always put in people like family members as characters in the story.”
Quirky stories
This can be seen in The Twelve Rhymes of Christmas. Many of the short rhymes tell quirky stories and feature characters inspired by Billy, grandparents Noel (Nollaig the Snowman) and Alice, as well as Ciara’s grandnephew Jamie. Ciara is also a native of Nenagh, and so naturally, the town is central to one of the stories. Accompanying the short rhymes are a series of eye-catching illustrations which Ciara generated herself using the online editing platform Shutterstock.
Although Ciara is relatively quick to compose a rhyme, the process of putting together an entire book was long and challenging. While Billy and Friends was only available locally, this latest work is being sold on Amazon, making it available to a worldwide audience. Ciara is humble. She doesn’t expect to become a millionaire out of it, but she does hope that the book will help other parents to entertain and teach their kids over the Christmas period. The stories themselves range from tales about ‘Paws the Polar Bear’ to life in ‘The North Pole’. They are well-written, and sound almost lyrical. But that is no surprise, given that Ciara also writes songs and actually composed one known as the ‘The Liam MacCarthy’ in the build-up to the All-Ireland hurling final, which she broadcast live on Tipp FM.
Ciara now intends to take a break from writing and enjoy Christmas with Billy and her fiancé, James. Much of her time is devoted to caring for her young son, but writing rhymes has become a passion which she has no intention of relinquishing. As long as she’s thinking, she’s rhyming. Another book is almost a certainty.
BOOK DETAILS
You can purchase The Twelve Rhymes of Christmas on Amazon for €10.40