Review | Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire?

One of the wonderful benefits of being a children’s author and reviewing children’s books is that I meet extraordinarily talented people, both in life and online, and occasionally I get to read books that I never would have discovered otherwise.

This week, I received a package  that came all the way from Ireland. It was an advanced reading copy of a children’s book, gifted to me by the wonderfully talented illustrator Una Woods. 

Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire?

The book “Have you Seen the Dublin Vampire”, by Una Woods is published by The Obrien Press and is currently available for preorder on Amazon. It releases in the US on November 14th. 

This book has some of the most adorable illustrations I have ever seen. In the book, a vampire makes his way around Ireland. 

My son was ecstatic because vampires, in his mind, equate to Halloween. He just can’t get enough of spooky things like vampires and ghosts right now, so he was thrilled. We were both very drawn to the illustrations in this book, and we find new details on each page each time we read it.

This book is a whole lot of cute!

The story in “Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire” is about a vampire who wonders around Dublin and can be found visiting various places around town, but everyone is so busy that they don’t seem to notice him. Unfortunately for myself and my son, we’ve not yet been to Dublin, so the novelty of references to geography and other attractions was lost on us.

It did, however, really make me want to go there, and this is still a book we both enjoyed regardless of our knowledge of Ireland. If you are familiar with the geography of Dublin, however, I’d imagine this book would be even more fun. 

The book repeats the line “Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire?”,which my four year old took as a prompt to find the vampire on every page. It adds an interactive quality to the book that I had not expected. The repeated line also creates a rhythm to the book that makes it easy to read aloud and allows for non-readers to easily anticipate the line and participate in the reading. This is a quality that I look for in children’s picture books, because my son is learning to read and I find that him being able to “read” part of it is an important part of his learning process. 

My son genuinely likes this book. I’ll honestly say that with my current choice of career, books are constantly coming in to our house from one outlet or another, whether they are given, purchased, or rented out from the library. A good majority of those books,  my son could care less about. We read them and we move on. This one, however, I find my son looking at on his own. He sits and hunts for the vampire on every page, and comes to me to show me he found the Dublin Vampire. It’s rather adorable how much my child is enjoying this book. 

I owe his fascination with it to two things: 

One: Vampires

What can I say, I have a preschooler with a taste for the macabre. 

And 

Two: The illustrations

Una Woods has a unique and likable illustration style that stands out. If I saw this book in a book store, I would gravitate towards it immediately. The colors pop, the textures draw you in, and the way she does eyes is absolutely adorable.

 I like children’s books where the cover automatically pulls you and each page is an experience.  Una Wood’s “ Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire” does just that. It’s a perfect addition to your child’s picture book collection, whether you have visited Ireland or not. 

So a huge, huge THANK YOU to Una for this marvelous book, which we will treasure for years to come. 

For more about the book, Una Woods, and her work, visit www.UnaWoods.com.