A fun and engaging story about the impossibility of perfection

An exciting new adventure from the critically-acclaimed Erika McGann

Illustrated by Toni Galmés

Publishing 6th June. Available for pre-order.

Senan uses his binoculars to spy out the Shy Town, a sweet little place on a hill, with winding streets and red and yellow roofs. Senan calls it the Shy Town because it often hides and is hard to find. 

He tells his next-door friend Joshua about the Shy Town, and they set off, with Senan’s grandmother in a ramshackle wheelchair, to find this elusive place. Along the way they make friends with Paperboy. Who is, as you’d expect, a boy made of paper. 

With the help of a kruckle (a sort of Shy Town creature) that they meet on their journey, they find the Shy Town, only its real name is Perfection, because it is absolutely perfect. 

But all is not well in Perfection: the inhabitants are constantly worrying about making it more and more perfect. But since more perfect than perfect is an impossibility, they are constantly exhausted. 

What can Senan and friends do to save the kruckles from their obsession with perfection?

Praise for Erika McGann
 

"McGann’s usual mix of hilarious dialogue and eccentric characters." – Irish Examiner

"McGann's writing is dazzling."  – Irish Independent

"McGann creates a unique world of magical creatures and strange places."  – Children's Books Ireland

"I love Erika's writing." – Children's Books Ireland's Elaina Ryan on Here and Back Again

"McGann creates a richly imaginative world." – Armadillo Magazine

"Erika McGann returns with another page-turning adventure filled with humour and heart." – Books Ireland

"McGann’s output is undoubtedly a delight." –  Munster Express

"Erika McGann’s strong ear for dialogue makes for utterly believable children." – Inis Magazine

Erika McGann is an award-winning children's author based in Dublin. She has written a wide range of children's books, including Where Are You Puffling? (with illustrator Gerry Daly) and Tabitha Plimtock and the Edge of the World (with illustrations by Phillip Cullen), which was awarded a White Raven by the International Youth Library.

About the Illustrator

Toni has always liked to tell stories through his drawings. Toni was born in Mallorca, a sunny Mediterranean island. Later he moved to Barcelona to study Fine Arts. There he learned, read, and worked as a storyboard artist for film and advertising. He fell in love with a bookseller and, from that love, his work as an illustrator of children’s books and graphic novels was born. Toni’s work includes picture books, novels and graphic novels published in Spain and France, with publishers such as Penguin Random House, La Galera, Bindi Books and the prestigious Franco- Belgian comic publishers, Dupuis and Delcourt.