O'SULLIVAN STEW

Clever Kate O’Sullivan cooks up a feast of family stories to save her and her kins’ lives. When the king’s men snatch away a beloved horse from an outcast witch, and the Crookhaven community fails to take action, brave Kate, her father, and two brothers come to the rescue; they are caught trying to steal the horse back, and sentenced to hang. Kate knows their only chance of survival is for her to unleash her secret weapon of storytelling. She spins her enchanting—and hilarious—yarns of giants, monsters, leprechauns, and a pack of tone-deaf cats, and one by one, the king lets each O’Sullivan off the hook. Kate’s sense of fairness, the refreshing, feminist ending, and the offbeat humor give the old-fashioned tales a grandly modern flair. Talbott’s illustrations are just as fanciful and fun; story and pictures are bound to charm an audience just as they captivate the king. (Picture book. 5-8)