Sonderbooks Book Review of The King of Ireland's Son

***The King of Ireland's Son*

An Irish Folk Tale

by Padraic Colum

Reviewed November 21, 2002.
Floris Classics, Edinburgh, 2000. Originally published in 1916. 275 pages.

On the recommendation of Chinaberry.com, I decided to use this book as a read-aloud. I don’t really think I’d recommend it to others for that purpose, but it is a fun fairy tale. As a story, we found it very strange, rambling and going off onto tangents and introducing characters seemingly at random.

For example, in the middle of the last chapter, he says: “I was there, and I heard the whole story. But I got no present save shoes of paper and stockings of butter-milk and these a herdsman stole from me as I crossed the mountains.” We hear no more about the narrator before or after. Very strange!

However, it is a fun fairy tale, if a bit of a rambling one. It has the flavor of a heroic saga combined with traditional fairy tale. A nice diversion from modern books.

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

**The King of Ireland's Son

An Irish Folk Tale

by Padraic Colum

***The King of Ireland's Son*