Rugby Rebel
Thirteen-year-old, rugby-mad Eoin Madden returns to Castlerock boarding school in Dublin to start the new school year. He meets with old friends and enemies, and is moved up to play for the Junior Cup rugby team. He sees the ghost of a young rugby player wearing a Belvedere jersey and uncovers a link between the ghost and the Easter Rising of 1916. When mobile phones go missing from the dormitory, Eoin and his friends, real and ghostly, set out to uncover the thief.
Rugby Rebel is an old-fashioned adventure story, mainly aimed at boys with an interest in sports. The descriptions of rugby practice sessions and matches would make little sense to anyone unfamiliar with the game, but these sections are quite short and the mystery and adventure elements of the book are enough to keep more general readers interested. The supernatural is dealt with in a matter-of-fact way that removes any potential spookiness. Indeed, the two ghosts, who are based on real people, act and talk for the most part like living people. They help Eoin to unravel the mystery of the missing phones and the secret room he discovers beneath his dormitory.
Rugby Rebel reads like a history lesson in places, with either the author or one of the ghosts telling us about historical events, or filling in the back story from the two previous books in this series, which distances the reader from Eoin’s story at times. Siggins is on firmer ground when he lets his characters speak for themselves, and very likeable characters they are, too. The narrative moves at a brisk pace and the language is clear enough for readers of nine and over. On the whole, a very enjoyable book.
