As a 4th class teacher, I thought this was a great book for teaching pupils about myths and legends. It has six different stories in it, and what I really liked is that they are more unusual and less common than the ones we usually hear when we think of this topic. Each story also has a pronunciation guide at the start, which was very useful when new characters were introduced.
The students were really engaged with the stories and looked forward to hearing a new one each day. The illustrations were excellent and really captured the readers’ attention, helping to bring the characters and settings to life. The children enjoyed making links between the different stories, and this made our discussions even more interesting.
We were also able to do lots of great activities based on the stories that connected with English, art, and drama. Some of the activities included gallery walks and hot-seating, which the children loved. Overall, I think this is the perfect read-aloud for a class, especially for pupils in 3rd and 4th class.
By Laura O’ Callaghan, Co. Cork
“Irish Legends – Newgrange, Tara and the Boyne Valley” by Eithne Massey, illustrated by Lisa Jackson, published by O’ Brien Press, is on sale now for €12.99 (P/B).
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher, O’ Brien Press, free of charge to Seomra Ranga for the purposes of this review.
