Sorry but I have to fall back on the old one: Roddy Doyle`s fable for children Brilliant, is simply brilliant. Or brill, if you will have it.
Recession has Ireland firmly in a throttlehold, and the people of Dublin have sunk into a recession-related depression. It`s a cold, clammy fog and almost everyone has gone under. Except the children of the city. They see depression for what it is: a large Black Dog holding in its mouth the Funny Bone of Dublin. They also see their mission for what it is: to rid the city of this black terror while rescuing the Funny Bone from its slavering jaws.
Led by the feisty siblings Raymond and Gloria, Dublin`s children come together in a night-time chase through city streets and city parks, even the city zoo, down to the place of denouement, Dublin Bay.
The quest involves a lot of courage in the face of tangible terror, the facing down of inner fears, tapping into their own as yet unsnatched funny bone.
Totally a charm overload, in the most obvious way. Nothing very complex here but then, facing down fears and emerging from the fug of depression is not too complex a thing if you think it through. Not from a ten-year-old`s point of view.