One Belfast Boy

A fine balance of hard-hitting facts and lyrical passages, McMahon's (Summer Tunes) searching portrait of one Belfast boy is also a haunting look at a ravaged city. At 11, Liam aspires to be a great boxer, and his training and hopes for a boxing match four days away frame the story. He is accustomed to bomb threats and rock throwing, to hearing even six-year-olds observe that ""Cease-fires are made to be broken."" Convincing snatches of conversation augment McMahon's skillful narrative, and together with O'Connor's candid photos they reveal the sad dichotomy between an innocent child's world and the angry larger society: noisy military helicopters fly over a pickup soccer game outside Liam's Catholic school, passing soldiers ""eye him down the barrels of their guns"" as the boy kicks a ball on his street and an ominous-looking army observation tower casts its shadow on his jogging route. A preface cogently sorts out Ireland's complex, strife-torn history and describes the devastating effects of ""the Troubles."" These become clear in the story of Liam himself, who has never met anyone from the Protestant neighborhoods, separated from the Catholic sections by ""peace walls."" The irony will not be lost on young readers. Ages 7-12. (Mar.)