Showing results by narrator "Lloyd Cooney" in All Categories

After escaping from the zoo and coming to live with Patrick and his mum, Marco proves to have many talents. Now Patrick discovers that Marco is also a musical genius – he can play the trombone, banjo and even moonwalk like Michael Jackson! 'Let's start a band', Patrick says, and Marco becomes a star.

Nearly everyone in my class had a pet of some sort. Lots of them had dogs, and a fair few had cats, budgies and goldfish. Max Wallace had a hamster and Adam O'Hara had a tortoise which he claimed was 60 years old, though I'm pretty sure he was exaggerating. Sam Tripp had a small lizard and a pet rabbit, which was a strange combination. But no one I knew had a grizzly bear sleeping in their garden shed, or sat beside a grizzly bear most nights watching TV.

A grizzly bear walked all the way from the zoo to my front door and not a single person noticed him. I suppose it helped that it was night, and that he was wearing a big black duffle coat with an enormous hood that covered his hairy head. He knocked on the front door three times, loud knocks that shook the house. Patrick makes his unexpected guest at home, while keeping him hidden from the neighbours, police and his very distractable mum!

Shane Carthy writes frankly and eloquently about his journey over the last five years. He details, without overdramatising, the downward spiral which, days after producing a man-of-the-match display in Dublin’s 2014 Leinster under-21 final win over Meath, saw him wake up in St Patrick’s Mental Hospital. Carthy also explains what ultimately brought him back to where he is now, discovering a path where life is worth living.