Amazon UK Review (September 2nd, 2025)

Young Tawny - The Owl in Borrowed Feathers, Is a poignant tale that takes us on a journey of discovery in which a little orphan owl leaves its cherished adoptive home among the penguins to find its special place of belonging in the world. I really hoped this would turn out well, as the main character - Young Tawny - captured our hearts from the beginning and I didn’t want to depress my little listeners! I needn’t have worried.

Young Tawny is a beautifully imagined little creature: brave thoughtful and full of curiosity, carrying the reader through all its exciting adventures in a sweetly eccentric world full of enchantment and some very real challenges.

I especially appreciated the way these challenges - concerning friendship, family and community are dealt with - lessons of acceptance and forgiveness abound - all handled with a light touch. It has the feel of a classic in that it’s elegantly written and deftly illustrated: there are maps and a Glossary to help locate us in Tawny’s world; but it is also fresh, funny and relatable to our modern world - Our little friend must find a place to live, to work and also to prepare an audition for a thrilling talent contest…

A great bedtime/ rainy day story that could be read in instalments (I love instalments for a bed time story - trains attention!) also a useful resource for broaching some quite difficult subjects with wit warmth and considerable charm. We Loved it and would certainly recommend. My listeners were five and seven, but would work well for middle-grade readers. - Tracy

Irish Herald, September, 2025

LAST MONTH SAW THE publication of Young Tawny: The Owl in Borrowed Feathers, and we spoke to Hollywood-based Irish American author Kevin McEvoy Herlihy about exactly how he came up with the story.

“It's inspired in part by Aesop's fable, “The Bird in Borrowed Feathers," and is a story about identity, belonging and friendship. As a foundling, Young Tawny has these challenges thrust upon her at an early age. It also expresses the risks in pretending to be something that you're not, and the repercussions that follow."

Young Tawny is raised by penguins, but of course she really isn't any good at doing penguin things. One day she actually flies—something that is most un-penguin-like—and to understand why she is so different, she must leave her penguin family to find the place she can call home.

The book follows her journey to Woody Forest, where she is introduced to the wonders of the tree-filled land by a strange new creature, an owlet named Anjouan. There's a local musical holding auditions too, and it turns out Young Tawny can dance, though singing is less of a natural talent: she can't hoot like an owl, only “krok" like a penguin, so now she must find her voice.

Herlihy, 64, lives with his wife in Hollywood, and explains that his parents were from Dublin. “They moved to England shortly after they were married, settling in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where myself and three of my four siblings were born."

He recalls many childhood summers spent on his great-aunt's farm in Termonfeckin In County Louth, and visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins.

“Every St Patrick's Day, a shamrock arrived in the mail from Ireland, and a sprig of it was pinned to our school uniforms. I'm still glad to be connected to my extended Irish family," he says.

Kevin met his wife, a film and television composer and producer from Brooklyn who uses stage name The Angel, in London, and he first came to Los Angeles in 1993 when she recorded an album for a hip hop record label.

“We came to Hollywood to begin promoting the first singles from her album, thinking we might spend a month or two here, but with that perpetual sun shining, we soon decided to make this our home. I had imagined living in Europe, which seemed a natural progression, whereas Los Angeles was such a far-off place. Now the idea that I have now lived in LA longer than I lived in the UK is difficult to fathom!"

His decision to write a children's book was a by-product of having written a TV series pilot during COVID lockdown with his work partner, Peter Granger-Taylor.

“We had an idea based around a fictional “hit" musical and its colorful adult actors," said Kevin, “and since Peter was taking on a large writing project, the task fell to me. It would be a classic Anglo-Celtic Isles children's story with a certain style that would remain timeless.

Kevin said that he revisited the books his mother used to read to the children, like Tove Jansson's Moomins, Alf Proysen's Mrs Pepperpot, Hugh Lofting's Dr Doolittle, and AA Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, and used them as a starting point.

“While in a nostalgic mode, I wanted to write something that my mother, Alice, would have loved as a child. I wanted to write something adults could also enjoy as a read-along with a child."

The illustrations are of course a vital part of a children's book, and Kevin explained how finally “stumbled upon" Catherine Redgate after a long search online.

“With me being in Los Angeles and her in Scotland, we sent lots of emails back and forth discussing the concept. And a video chat or two helped us along. In her work, I could see echoes of children's book illustrators from my childhood that I was fond of like EH Shepard, who did Winnie-the-Pooh, and Edward Ardizzone, who illustrated Stig of the Dump."

Yet Catherine has a very modern style uniquely her own, he added.

“We discussed some panels I had ideas for, but the majority of the setups were all Catherine. We devised putting Young Tawny on the stage for the book cover, but tackled that at the very end. Catherine delivered something wonderful straight away. I asked for the footlight additions, and immediately she came up with the glow worms. Quite spectacular."

On a daily basis Kevin runs a production company and record label that requires him to work across film, TV, podcasts and whatever requires music. He manages the delivery of tracks to streaming services or radio, and finished singles and albums to our digital distributor.

“There are always rights to be granted, licensing of music to film and TV, and works to be registered. Sometimes I'm needed to do some music or dialogue editing for film," he says.

Among all that he tries to keep his writing projects moving forward both as a screenwriter and author, and reveals that a sequel to Young Tawny is already in the works, as is the production of the audio book.

“I also have a modern thriller that begins in Ireland and spreads across the world, as well as plans to write a fairy tale about my mother knitting Aran jumpers," he says.

Sadly, Kevin rarely visits Ireland or the even the UK, at least in recent times. “I miss the beauty of Ireland's unique light and shade. I miss the ease of banter and hearing the tales, tall and other-wise. I was never very comfortable at telling stories. In part, I became a writer to get what was in my head on paper, where my ideas would be fully worked out and l'd never lose the plot."

Here in California, he loves the quiet of the Mojave Desert. “It feels like the stones haven't been moved in a thousand years. Walking in that calm and heat, is serene. More often though it's a walk on the beach or along the jetty in the Marina, appreciating the spectacular sunsets.”

As for the future, Kevin looking to developing Young Tawny as an animated feature and though he has connected with a female animation director here in LA, he knows that Ireland is such a hotbed of animation that he wishes he could produce the film there. He also has another dream for his story. “It's pure folly, but when I left school I worked for a few years as a printer, and I would love a printing press to run off some editions of the children's book by hand." - James Bartlett

• Hardcover edition published August 13, 2025
• Ebook available on Apple, Kobo and Barnes and Noble
• IG, FB social media
• Audio book in production
• Library and bookstore events
• POP in production
• Bookplate in production