Sheila MacGill-CallahanCríticas

Under review.

Determined to drive all of the snakes out of Ireland, Patrick rings a special snake call on his magic bell, and every serpentine resident of the Emerald Isle heads out to sea. Every one, that is, save Ireland's oldest and largest snake, who is determined not to leave his home. Thus commences a struggle between the two, as Patrick attempts to trick and entrap the snake. Eventually, they chase across Ireland, over the Giant's Causeway into Scotland, and towards Loch Ness...

As she makes plain in her afterword, author Sheila MacGill-Callahan combines traditional folklore concerning Saint Patrick and his role in ridding Ireland of all serpentine life with more recent stories of the Loch Ness Monster in The Last Snake in Ireland: A Story about St. Patrick. It's cleverly done, with the snake having as much to say about matters as Patrick. A part of me felt rather bad for the snake in this story - after all, despite being demonized by humanity, snakes are no more destructive than many other kinds of animal - so I was interested to see that the author emphasizes that this was all done in the time before Patrick became Saint Patrick. Is she implying that his actions were somewhat less than holy - perhaps because they were lacking in compassion? Whatever the case may be, the story here was engaging, and the accompanying artwork from Will Hillenbrand, painted on both sides of vellum in oil pastel, egg tempera, watercolor, water-soluble crayon and colored pencil, is quite appealing. I really liked the color palette used - the deep red snake, the green and purple-clad Patrick - and found many of the scenes quite expressive. All in all, this would make for a fun St. Patrick's Day read, and it is in that capacity that I would recommend it.

Gennady Spirin was born and raised in an area of Russia near Moscow. He is one of my favorite illustrators. He lives with his family in Princeton, NJ. I know he sells his exquisite art, commanding well-deserved high prices. If I was rich, I would certainly buy his offerings.

In this tale, the four beautiful children of the king are turned to swans by the wicked, jealous step mother. The swans are given beautiful voices to lure people to capture them. They are captured, netted and slated to fall in the deep ocean. Saved by a whale, they are eventually returned to original form.

On one day of the year, they can return to human form, but cannot touch the ground. In the seventh year of their curse, the step mother prepares a feast for those who support her. Stating that when the twin mountains of their father's kingdom come together, they will be freed. As this is about to occur, their father watches as his children are slated to be killed. Suddenly, the whale named Jasconius slaps the water with his tale creating a huge shape of eagles who arrive to cut the net that bounds the swans.

Wild swans created a bridge connecting the mountains as warriors fought to free the children of the king. The wicked stepmother is banished and never heard from again.

Their are no words to describe the incredible illustrations of Gennady Spirin and his renditions of folk tales, some of which are not well known.

Highly recommended, I give this book a well deserved five stars. Here are some illustrations of the book which I include to encourage you to read the books he illustrates and see the beautiful artistry.

This story is about Saint Patrick and how he got the last snake out of Ireland. I really enjoyed this story. It is based on the myth of the Loch Ness monster. Before reading the story, I already heard about Saint Patrick removing all the snakes out of Ireland and about the Lockness monster. However, I did not know they had a connection. This book was very interesting to read. I think children will really enjoy it.

It is a book about the legend of the Children of Lir. There are four children of a king of Ireland, however the king was lonely since the children's mother had died at their birth. Then he married a new women who did not like the children. One day she brought them into the woods and turned them into swans so that she could have the power of the kingdom to herself. Then finally after a long time they had plotted an escape and turned back into much older princes and princesses and they lived happily with their father in the kingdom since his new wife had been banished. Then they lived happily ever after and always thanked the other animals who helped them escape when they were swans.

I would use this book for a fifth grade class. It would probably be appropriate for younger ages, but the central message is dense and would be best suited for fifth grade. I would use it as a read aloud to introduce the Manitou tribe. I would embed social studies and science instruction in this story. During reading, the students would see how there was a shift in power between Native American settlers and colonists. After reading the story, we would discuss how the area was taken over by colonists. We would discuss how the turtle describes the change. Afterwards, we would discuss the environmental affect it had on the existing society. We would talk about why it's important to preserve ancient artifacts, such as the turtle.

This would be a great read aloud for Kindergarten and a good book for the classroom library for grades 1-3. This book could be used in a religion class as an allegory to God and us, his children.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the illustrations. I think that the illustrated did a very good job with the pictures and made them very detailed and enjoyable. This would be a good book to read to first or second grade students to talk about how the history of something can change over time like how the turtle use to be very important to people and then slowly lost its importance as times changed. You can talk with the class about how it used to be a tradition for children to come see and talk to the turtle. You can follow up with asking students to think of traditions from their families. You can explain what a tradition is and have students share what traditions they still follow or what traditions they used to have but have slowly gone away. You can also talk to the students about sculptures and how it is very difficult to make a sculpture out of rock because you have to chisel it away. You can show students pictures of some sculptures and talk about how artists use different types of rock to make the sculptures. You can also use this book to talk about the environment and how the turtle had to watch as people came and destroyed the land and the forests. You can discuss how this is happening a lot in today;s society as well. Many students may not know what a botanical garden is so this is a good book to introduce them to that as well. This book can be used to make a lot of connections to other topics or areas of discussion. Second grade standards: 2,3 (This is one of your books)

Soon-to-be saint Patrick had a problem on his hands. The snakes of Ireland were out of control and bothering everyone. So Patrick used his magic bell to summon all the snakes, and he sent them away to far off lands. Unfortunately, the oldest, most clever snake refused to go. The snake was everywhere Patrick went. Soon it was very clear, the snake must go. But how? Patrick comes up with a surprise plan to best the sneaky serpent. However, don't count the snake out too quickly. It seems the snake has a surprise for Patrick as well.

The Bottom Line: Author Sheila MacGill-Callahan cleverly weaves together two legends (see the Author's Note at the end of the book) to tell an old tale with surprise ending. Will Hillenbrand's colorful, mixed media illustrations in pastels, watercolors, and egg tempura will delight both children and adults alike. Recommended for story time for kids in grade school.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog.½

The Last Snake of Ireland tells the story of how St. Patrick (before he became a Saint) rings a snake call on his magic bell and sends all of the snakes to faraway places. All but the biggest snake were charmed by his bell. This snake requires even more cunning activity and Patrick attempts to capture it in a box, but of course the snake is too smart for that. It escapes and goes on a journey through Ireland to Loch Ness where an eagle attempts to make it his dinner. Patrick rescues the snake from the eagle and finally gets it into the box. The box is dropped to the bottom of Loch Ness, the snake begins to grow and escapes the box. It remains in Loch Ness and therefore receives its' name of the Loch Ness Monster.

Another fairy tale about an evil Queen jealous of her stepchildren. This book was loosely based on an Irish folklore. It was written beautifully and the artwork was amazing. I would recommend this to a student if they enjoy fantasy.

Gorgeously illustrated book, with a fairy tale that Shakespeare's King Lear was probably based on

If one is not familiar with the traditional Irish myth/legend of the children of Lir, one might be able to enjoy Sheila MacGill-Callahan's very loose and very much changed retelling without reservations. Both the narrative and the illustrations are charming, evocative of love, jealousy, sadness, adventure (combined with a typical, but clever happily-ever-after fairytale ending). However, although legends and myths undergo many changes, an author should clearly indicate wether his/her retelling, his/her version of a folktale, a legend is a radical departure from known and accepted versions. And in my opinion, with The Children of Lir, Sheila MacGill-Callahan has somewhat failed to do this. Yes, she does indicate in a rather rambling author's note that her reworking of the Fate of the Children of Lir is loosely based on an Irish myth. But her version of the story (with the happy ending, the deus ex machina of the rescuing whale, the different spelling of Aoife's name etc.) is so fundamentally different from traditional Irish lore that it really is no longer only a retelling, but an almost completely original story, one that uses the characters of the original tale (and even with these characters, there are changes), and the general concept of the children of Lir being changed into swans by a jealous stepmother, but not much else. Also, as the Fate of the Children of Lir is considered one of the most sorrowful and poignant tales of Irish folklore, of Irish storytelling (their curse of having to live 900 years as swans, their final release by a Christian monk, their immediate death from old age upon release from said curse), Sheila MacGill-Callahan's version, with its sweet, happy ending, seems almost a bit of an affront to Irish culture and lore (as though the author made use of the general theme but did not really care or understand that some myths, some legends should not be tampered with, should be approached with respect).

As a tale in and of itself, the story is lovely and quite moving, and the illustrations are truly wonderful, stylish, artistic, expressive. However Sheila McGill-Callahan's The Children of Lir seems to have evolved into more of a Central European fairy tale; it no longer appears as the powerfully poignant, sorrowful tale of Irish (Celtic) legend it originally was meant to be. I would still recommend this book to children who enjoy fairy and folk tales, especially stories of children being changed into animals (older children, as there is quite a lot of dense text), but with a major caveat that this retelling of the Fate of the Children of Lir is to be approached more as a stylised "Kunstmärchen" refurbishing of the Irish original.½

To Capture the Wind was nice old Irish folklore. The story is of a madien who must complete the riddle of a distant king who is keeping her mate. She must answer the riddles in a certain order and in the process earns different accolades and rewards. To be honest, it was a somewhat confusing story, but a solid story to read to your class around St. Patrick's Day time.

It's a beautiful tale about faith, endurance, and culture. As a book recommended through Reading Rainbow, I had anticipated that it would be more basic and suitable for a toddler.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.

Too long for a read aloud. If you solve four riddles you can marry the prince, a girl solves them, but then is forbidden to marry the prince. She outwits the pirate king and invents sails. Oddly disjointed.

Turned into swans by their evil stepmother, the children of Lir must find a way to solve the riddle that their stepmother set before them on how to break the curse that is on them. With the help of the animals of the land, sea, and air they might be able to beat the evil curse.