Magical Celtic Tales

by Una Leavy, Fergal O'Connor (Illustrator)

Overview

Storytelling has always been at the heart of Celtic societies. From firesides to books, these tales have been passed from generation to generation. Some are well known, such as the Irish legend of Diarmaid and Gráinne, while those less frequently told, including The Magic Pail from Cornwall, deserve their place in this unique collection. Tales from all celtic lands, including Brittany, The Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales, meet here. Skillfully retold by author and poet Una Leavy and brought to life by Fergal O’Connor’s lively illustrations. Read of giants and dragons, of fairies and princesses: all beautifully illustrated and told for a new generation of children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847175465
Publisher:	Irish American Book Company
Publication date:	12/10/2016
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Una Leavy has written many books for children. She works as a primary school teacher in County Mayo.

Una Leavy was born in Charlestown, Co. Mayo. She has been writing since early childhood. A primary school teacher by profession, she is married to Lorcán and they have six children. Her writing includes poetry, articles and short stories which have been published in various magazines and periodicals. Much of her work has been for children and to date she has published seven books with the O'Brien Press.

Fergal O' Connor is an artist and illustrator from Co. Kerry. His work is set within an imaginative, fantastical, and often dark universe inhabited by strange characters and creatures, a sombre world where the amazing and the beautiful lives side by side with the bleak and tragic. He currently works from his home in Kerry where he creates artwork for exhibitions as well as illustrating for books and other publications.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2017
Gr 3–5—This humorous collection is rife with moral platitudes, brave acts, and witty Celts outsmarting magical folk trying to get the better of them. In these nine short stories, inspired by tales from Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Brittany, Cornwall, and Wales, the clever are rewarded when their common sense prevails, and the bad receive their comeuppance when their greed-fueled schemes backfire. Each selection reads independently; the text is simple and clear, the characters are well imagined, and information on Celtic phrases, foods, and songs is sprinkled throughout with a light hand. Endnotes acknowledge the origin of each story and provide further detail on cultural traditions. Most of the entries are cheerful in tone and beg to be read aloud. The love story of "Diarmuid and Gráinne" and "The Seal Catcher's Story" veer into darker territory (both include violent hunting scenes), but even in these tales the nastier bits are glossed over and much is left to the imagination. Unfortunately, the muted pen and watercolor illustrations that accompany each story lack the whimsy, consistent rhythm, and fantastical quality of the text. Some watercolor pieces have been completed with great care, such as the complex full-page illustration that opens "Connor the Brave," and others, including the smaller panels in "The Red Dragon" and "The Magic Pail," appear unfinished and hastily completed by comparison. Characters' faces are repeatedly recycled, and in many cases opportunities to bring to life dynamic scenes are eschewed in favor of subdued paintings of characters in conversation or post-conflict. VERDICT Readers who look past the art direction and delve into the text will be rewarded by snippets of Celtic history and culture and highly entertaining stories of magical encounters. Consider for large mythology collections.—Lauren Younger, New York Public Library

School Library Journal

2017-03-06
Nine old tales retold, featuring courage and cleverness, giants and wee folk, rash actions and romance.Gathered from, mostly, public-domain sources and fluently recast with occasional modern inflections ("Meanwhile, back at the court, King Gwrtheyrn was depressed"), the stories largely skip past explicit gore or violence to play up family and domestic values. Thus "Conor the Brave" takes on several (rather easily defeated) giants to keep his widowed mother in firewood; Hamish (euphemistically dubbed a "seal catcher") takes up trade in sealskins to help his impoverished Scottish clan—and sincerely repents after discovering that selkies are real; and a Cornish couple is rewarded with a human child for looking lovingly after a changeling for 10 years. In a "Rumpelstiltskin" variant from the Isle of Man that puts at least a mild spin on convention, slacker housewife Blaanid mends her ways after her own procrastination forces her into a deal with a scary giant in order to get her hardworking husband a coat. In O'Connor's brushy watercolors, red-haired or blond young white folk in ragged country clothing intrepidly face portly giants or pointy-eared fairies in rugged wind-swept landscapes. American tongues will wish in vain for a pronunciation guide to the Welsh and Gaelic names, but in her endnotes, Leavy does supply both context and sources for each story. A fresh alternative to dustier collections, well-tuned for reading aloud. (Folk tales. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews