Mary Tannen

This is a frothy little piece of fiction about a young girl who comes to New York to work as a summer intern at a magazine very much like The New Yorker /she is unaware that her upstairs neighbor, the rather extravagantly eccentric Lulu, is the mother who gave her up for adoption 21 years earlier. Nor does she realize that Lulu worked at the same magazine where she is an intern or that the Senior editor may very well be her father.

How all is revealed and how Edith grows into herself makes for a wonderful summer read.… (más)

Sequel adventure in ancient Ireland by 2 modern adolescents who use a magic spell to return in search of their uncle. Ending up in a later time (800 AD) than their previous adventure, they nevertheless track him down at a monastery after getting help from a druid/witch and making friends with a slightly older boy. This is much more rustic than the monasteries we may be familiar with from reading about the middle ages and is threatened by invaders. They have a shapeshift experience (a la T H White) as ravens which allows the story to cover more history.… (más)

Great adventure and introduction to early Irish history, legends, and living conditions. Of particular interest to kids fitting the older-sister-younger-brother pattern. Fiona & Bran get pulled into the spell transporting their new friend back to Ireland of about 2000 years ago. Their friend turns out to be the mythical hero Finn. They get stronger and braver as they walk for days thru forests, hunt/fish/gather their food (not much detail on that).
We are left with enough unsolved riddles to look forward to the sequel. What this book lacks is a guide to pronouncing the Celtic names. While readers will obviously make up their own pronunciations, since they will be exposed to more gaelic as adults they might as well learn proper decoding of the printed words.… (más)

Fiona and Bran McCool, two young American children, are caught up in a powerful Druid spell and transported back in time to the Ireland of two thousand years ago. There they accompany their new friend Deimne on his journey of self-discovery. For he is none other than Finn, son of Cumhall and Muirne the fair, destined to become leader of the Fianna, and one of Ireland’s greatest heroes.

Inspired by Lady Gregory's Gods and Fighting Men, Mary Tannen recreates the boyhood exploits of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, as seen through the eyes of two modern children. Here is the encounter with Conn and his gang of boys at Magh Life; the visit to the King of Carraighe, and how Finn defeated him at the game of ficheall; Finn’s defeat of a giant churl, and recapture of the Bag of Aoife that once belonged to his father; the conflict with the Sons of Morna; and Finn's consumption of the Salmon of Knowledge.

An exciting adventure-fantasy that should please young readers, whether or not they have any knowledge of Irish mythology, The Wizard Children of Finn was on the syllabus of the class I taught on children's fantasy literature at my college. Part of a unit entitled Fantasy as Folk Epic, we read it together with a selection from Dáithí Ó hÓgáin's Fionn mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero.… (más)