Lorcan Lynch, living in Dublin with his famous dad (a member of the Dail and a civil rights fighter) and mum (an environmentalist who travels the world in good causes) is asthmatic - seriously so - sometimes needing hospital stays. When dad goes to jail and mum flies off on one of her trips, he is sent to Aunty Peig in Connemara, where the air is clean and about as different from Dublin as possible. Cheeky Lorcan deals with bullies in his own inimitable way, but when he and Blaise, Joey and Roisin end up rescuing mistreated animals on an island off the coast, they almost come a cropper. Timid Roisin is asthmatic too, but both of them find strength they didn't know they possessed, and all is well in the end. The adventures are unlikely, and it isn't clear whether Lorcan's asthma is better because of the clear air, his aunt's acupuncture treatment, or because he has more belief in himself. He is, however, a good role model, a boy who doesn't let his health problems rule his life. Told in the first person in a stream of consciousness style, this is a rivetting read.