The Beguilers by Kate Thompson
Published by The Bodley Head, 2001

Overall winner of the Bisto Book of the Year Award 2002

Fourteen year old Rilka cannot accept the rules of her conservative society, rules which are dictated by priests and elders. People must never go out after dark. Change is universally feared and must never under any circumstance be initiated by a young person. Questions are better left unasked. Rilka breaks the rules. She wants to know and to do. She sets off on a perilous adventure in search of truth, beauty and power. This is a distinctive, thought provoking fantasy book
Everyone knew the power of the beguilers. No one knew what they were. No one had ever caught one. But every generation yields a beguiler-hunter; a tragic soul considered mad by the rest of the village. Rilka knows she isn't mad, but her desire to catch a beguiler will change her life - forever.

Kate Thompson is the author of the popular Switchers series featuring the books Switchers, Midnight's Choice and Wild Blood.

She will visit Ennistymon, Miltown Malbay and Lisdoonvarna libraries, Co. Clare on the 29th and 31st of October as part of the library's Children's Book Festival 2002 programme.

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