#174 of 1001 · January 21, 2021

For a Celtic tale fraught with monsters and dangerous magic, might I suggest Robert D. San Souci and Sally Wern Comport’s Brave Margaret? Our story begins in County Donegal, in the west of Ireland. Margaret, thoroughly bored of her simple life raising cattle, longs for escape and adventure. When Simon, the traveling son of a foreign king, sails ashore and asks to buy the herd, she agrees—but names passage aboard his ship as her only price. This bold choice whisks Margaret into a sprawling adventure of swordplay and enchantment, and she finds herself at the center of a mystic prophecy. San Souci renders his tale in elegant prose, matched by the rich color of Comport’s lushly expressive pastel art. A note for folklore enthusiasts: San Souci, in adapting his narrative from the tale “Simon and Margaret”, found in West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances, makes several key changes. Rather than open with Simon’s voyage, he centers the beginning of the story on Margaret’s origins and experience. He heightens the degree of external threat to increase the dramatic stakes: an escape from a sea serpent becomes a slaying, an innocent old woman becomes a sinister hag, protecting the prince from a ferocious giant becomes avenging the prince’s death (and subsequently restoring him to life). Finally, he smooths over several wrinkles in the romantic storyline, omitting all mention of Simon’s first wife (an early victim of the giant) as well as the young man’s quickly aborted attempt to claim credit for the brute’s demise. Fascinatingly, where San Souci presents Margaret’s identity as the prophesied champion as a feminist revelation, the original folktale treats it as quite matter-of-fact, the presence of a female warrior no more shocking than that of a male. #brave #ireland #irish #celtic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks