Donal and his wife, Sorcha, live on the mountain high above the village of Killaloe. With the death of their beloved “boyo,” their hearts become closed, as does their door. One winter afternoon, there comes a pounding and a shouting to open the door with the plea, “You’ll not be turning a man away in a cold like this!” Hesitatingly, Sorcha lets the peddler in with the warning he must be gone when Donal arrives. Two more peddlers come and join the first. When Donal returns, he promises to guide them to Killaloe after a smoke of the pipe. As they smoke, each of the peddlers has a story to tell, each of a young boy going to Fairy Land and returning. The first is a Rip Van Winkle variant; the second returns in the moment, though it seems to the boy a long time, and the third lives a long life of a priest, but returns the same age as he left. “It’s in the coming back that the wonder lies,” says Sorcha. With the storytelling finished, Donal says they should stay the night. Sorcha and Donal stay up, telling stories to each other of their lost boyo. “Sure, that a story can unbar and unbolt a heart, that is the greatest wonder of them all.” An afterword explains that the four stories have been combined to indicate how powerful and comforting storytelling can be. The author has the Irish lilt in the writing that will afford storytellers ease in the telling. Full-page illustrations opposite the text are acrylic on canvas with a thin brown frame to give a definition to the somber pictures. They are suitable to the stories and remind the reader of the darkened, candlelit atmosphere of the cottage. These stories within a story can be enjoyed as a good read-aloud as well as for storytelling. (Folktale. 7-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8050-6516-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
SEEN & HEARD
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Nolen and Nelson offer a smaller, but no less gifted counterpart to Big Jabe (2000) in this new tall tale. Shortly after being born one stormy night, Rose thanks her parents, picks a name, and gathers lightning into a ball—all of which is only a harbinger of feats to come. Decked out in full cowboy gear and oozing self-confidence from every pore, Rose cuts a diminutive, but heroic figure in Nelson’s big, broad Western scenes. Though she carries a twisted iron rod as dark as her skin and ropes clouds with fencing wire, Rose overcomes her greatest challenge—a pair of rampaging twisters—not with strength, but with a lullaby her parents sang. After turning tornadoes into much-needed rain clouds, Rose rides away, “that mighty, mighty song pressing on the bull’s-eye that was set at the center of her heart.” Throughout, she shows a reflective bent that gives her more dimension than most tall-tale heroes: a doff of the Stetson to her and her creators. (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216472-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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