This picture book centers around three peddlers, who share their short stories of their struggles as lost boys and how they were found again. Their short stories inspire wonders to the family of Donal O'Donnell and Sorchia, who struggles with the lost of their son. Basically this picture book is really three short stories wrapped within a fourth story. The style of this book is powerful when the author uses several short stories of the peddlers that leads to the main story of the overall book. In other words, the thee short stories are subplots that leads to the main plot of the book, which is clever when it comes to telling folktales. All in all, it's an enjoyable book to read to young students about the Irish folklore and their culture and tradition. ( )

When three peddlers stop at the home of Donal and Sorcha O'Donnell one bitterly cold night, they are only grudgingly welcomed by the couple, who are consumed by their grief at the death of their young son. But as each peddler relates a tale, each one more wondrous than the next, each one telling of a young boy lost in some fashion and then recovered, they slowly begin to come to terms with their loss.

I will confess that I avoided this title when it was first released, as I generally frown upon books that style themselves as "folktales" when they are not. Of course, the three embedded stories told by the peddlers are taken from the Irish folk tradition (although no attribution is given), but the tale in which they are framed is an original creation of Gary Schmidt. Having said this, I finally read through this the other day, and discovered that I liked it after all...

I found myself moved by this tale of parental grief, and by Schmidt's poetic language. I also found myself in agreement with the book's main premise: that folktales have the power to transform and heal us. A most welcome message for any folklorist! The illustrations by Loren Long had a luminous quality that perfectly conveyed the emotions of the characters. ( )

I do not know much about Ireland so some things were a little confusing. I did not enjoy the story. ( )

I like this book very much. It's difficult if one does not know much about Ireland's culture, however. Much research would need to be done to understand it. Also, I read a book about the mythical giant of Ireland, Finn McCool. Though his name is spelled differently in this book, I thought it was fun to see it told in this book again. ( )

NA