Irish Cinderlad ANNOTATION
Becan, a poor boy belittled by his stepmother and stepsisters, rescues a princess in distress after meeting a magical bull.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A hero's feats?
Ever since he was a baby, Becan's only worry has been his big feet—until his widowed father remarries.� His new stepmothr and her three daughters feed him crusts of bread and banish him to work in the fields.� So Becan runs away.
With the help of his only friend, a magical bull, he defeats a giant, slays a dragon, and rescues a princess.� But before she can thank him, Becan disappears, leaving behind him one of his enormous boots.� The princess scours the kingdom for the owner of the giant boot.� Will Becan's feet give him away?� And what will his fate be if they do?
�Folklorist Shirley Climo retells an age-old Irish tale that is an unusual twist on the popular Cinderella story. Just like his female counterpart, Becan has a mean stepmother and stepsisters. Unlike Cinderella, Becan has large feet and a magical bull for a fairy godmother. He defeats a sword-swinging giant, slays a fire-breathing dragon, and rescues a princess. But before the princess can thank him, he runs off, leaving her with only an enormous boot to aid her in the search for her rescuer. And, as in all Cinderella stories, true love prevails.
Folklorist Shirley Climo retells an age-old Irish tale that is an unusual twist on the popular Cinderella story. Just like his female counterpart, Becan has a mean stepmother and stepsisters. Unlike Cinderella, Becan has large feet and a magical bull for a fairy godmother. He defeats a sword-swinging giant, slays a fire-breathing dragon, and rescues a princess. But before the princess can thank him, he runs off, leaving her with only an enormous boot to aid her in the search for her rescuer. And, as in all Cinderella stories,true love prevails.
Author Biography: In Her Own Words...
"To write children's books always seemed the most wonderful goal in the world to me-and the most natural. My earliest memories are of being rocked in a creaky wicker swing while my mother, a children's book author, tried out various versions of her stories. Long before I could read, I'd begun telling my own tales to anyone willing to listen.
"I grew up, raised three children, a half dozen dogs, a clutch of cats, a horse, and a straggle of chickens. Each new addition provided story-telling material, and many two-legged and four-legged household members found their way into print. Even more important, I found that writing for young people was every bit as wonderful as I had hoped.
"My first book was Piskies, Spriggans and Other Magical Beings, a collection of folklore. My latest book is a revised and newly illustrated edition of Cobweb Christmas. Like the tradition of tinsel itself, the story of the spider's Christmas has become a part of holiday celebrations around the world. Its message of kindness to animals is as fresh today as it was when Cobweb Christmas was first told in Germany over two hundred years ago. In the twenty years between those two books, I've written picture books for the just-in-school set, chapter books for primary readers, story collections and nonfiction for middle grades, novels for preteens, and four retellings of the Cinderella theme — Egyptian, Korean, Irish, and Persian. I seldom stray very far or for very long from the favorite folktales of my childhood.
"A century ago, folklorist Andrew Lang said, "Nobody can write a new fairy tale; you can only mix up the old stories and put the characters into new dresses."
"For me, playing dress-up is fun at any age. "Shirley Climo is well-known for her thoroughly researched retellings of the Cinderella tale in the best-selling The Korean Cinderella and The Egyptian Cinderella, both illustrated by Ruth Heller. Ms. Climo lives in Los Altos, CA.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Jan Lieberman
This "Cinderella" variant has readers cheering for the cowherd, Becan. On the Day of the Dragon, the King's daughter is to be sacrificed: only Becan is brave enough to tackle the fearsome Serpent and save Princess Finola. She tries to thank him but grabs his boot as he pulls away. Now she must find him. His mean stepsisters call him "Bigfoot" and know the boot will never fit. What a surprise they are in for!
School Library Journal
K-Gr 2A pleasant but rather bland condensation of a traditional tale. One of the sources cited, Sara Cone Bryant's "Billy Beg and His Bull" from Best Stories to Tell to Children (Houghton, 1912; o.p.), is much like Seumas MacManus's wonderful retelling in In Chimney Corners (Doubleday & McClure, 1899; o.p.), in which Billy and the Bull are lifelong companions. The old versions have wonderful runs of poetic language and lots of action, a fair amount of which is violent. As well as gentling the story, Climo seems to want to democratize it. The hero is not a king's son but the son of a traveling peddler. He is described as being small in stature with inordinately large feet and the reteller makes much of the fact that he is ridiculed for his appearance. She even names him Becan, or "Little One." There is no magic stick that turns into a sword and gives the lad wondrous strength, and no belt from the bull's hide to make him invincible. Instead, the bull tells Becan to take his tail after he is dead because it will protect him. In fact, the tail kills a giant and the dragon almost on its own accord when the boy unleashes it. The tidy, full- and double-page illustrations are done in pastel colors and look like opaque watercolors. The people's faces are round and simple. It's fine for young picture-book readers and squeamish parents. However, Ellin Greene's retelling, Billy Beg and His Bull (Holiday, 1994), is much closer to the early versions, with its spirited text and earthy and humorous illustrations by Kimberly Bulcken Root.Marilyn Iarusso, New York Public Library
Kirkus Reviews
To her series of retellings (The Egyptian Cinderella, 1989; The Korean Cinderella, 1993) Climo adds this Irish version featuring a large-footed male character sometimes called Billy Beg and here named Becan. The magical being that aids the cinderlad is a speckled bull that, like the fish in the Chinese variant, Yeh- Shen, dies, leaving Becan with its tail as a weapon of extraordinary power. Becan wins the heart of Princess Finola by rescuing her from a sea serpent in a scene reminiscent of the story of Perseus and Andromeda; the princess traces him by means of his giant-sized boot; they live happily ever after. The sturdy, forthright telling is accompanied by pretty, predominantly blue, green, and purple paintings that show simply drawn human figures surrounded by highly detailed animals and landscape. Thousands of brush strokes render flower-spangled turf, the downy feathers of geese and seabirds, and the shaggy hides of cattle, horses, and donkeys. With an author's note on sources, this is a good addition to folklore collections and a must for collectors of Cinderella variants.
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