Call number
J922.22DAT
Status
Available
Call number
Description
A picture book biography of the patron saint of Ireland.
Local notes
Donated by the Mesward family 2017
Publication
Boyds Mills Press (1859)
Collections
User reviews
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
Using Saint Patrick's "Confession" - one of two letters he is known to have written - as her source, Ann Tompert tells the story of the man who is credited with converting Ireland to Christianity, and who became the patron saint of that country. From Patrick's youth in late 4th-century Roman
Picking up Ann Tompert and Michael Garland's Saint Patrick, I had Tomie dePaola's Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland at the back of my mind, and it was difficult not to compare the two, when reading. I think that Tompert does an excellent job with her narrative, and I liked that she used St. Patrick's own writing, of which there is very little, in crafting her story. Unlike the dePaola, she pays less attention to the folklore associated with this saint, relegating it to a mention in her afterword and concentrating on the story of Patrick's life instead. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enamored with the artwork, as I was with the text. I did like the decorative Celtic knotwork borders that Garland used, but the mixed media paintings themselves left me mostly cold. The color palette sometimes struck me as odd, there was a flat quality to some of the images that put me off, and I didn't like the streaky effect of the human faces. This last was clearly a deliberate choice - all of the skin had a textured quality, with alternating pink and grayish stripes, giving almost the effect of having been painted over wood - and I found it distracting. It's difficult to describe the effect it had on me, but it was almost as if the characters were fading in and out. Tastes vary of course, and other readers seem to have really enjoyed these illustrations, so take that as you will. I myself have a back-and-forth relationship with Garland's art - this is my eighth picture-book from him - sometimes loving it and sometimes disliking it. In any case, despite not loving the visuals here, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to any picture-book readers looking for stories about Saint Patrick. It could be paired very nicely with the dePaola, or with a telling of one of the famous legends about the saint, such as Sheila MacGill-Callahan's The Last Snake in Ireland: A Story about St. Patrick.
Show More
Britain, through his enslavement in Ireland; from his escape from captivity through his return to the country of his bondage - Tompert covers all of the major events of her subject's life, discussing the hardship and persecution he faced, when trying to spread the word of Christianity. She concludes with his death on March 17th, sometime around the year 461 AD - from this date comes the modern holiday of St. Patrick's Day - and includes a discussion of some of the folklore associated with him, in her brief afterword...Picking up Ann Tompert and Michael Garland's Saint Patrick, I had Tomie dePaola's Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland at the back of my mind, and it was difficult not to compare the two, when reading. I think that Tompert does an excellent job with her narrative, and I liked that she used St. Patrick's own writing, of which there is very little, in crafting her story. Unlike the dePaola, she pays less attention to the folklore associated with this saint, relegating it to a mention in her afterword and concentrating on the story of Patrick's life instead. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enamored with the artwork, as I was with the text. I did like the decorative Celtic knotwork borders that Garland used, but the mixed media paintings themselves left me mostly cold. The color palette sometimes struck me as odd, there was a flat quality to some of the images that put me off, and I didn't like the streaky effect of the human faces. This last was clearly a deliberate choice - all of the skin had a textured quality, with alternating pink and grayish stripes, giving almost the effect of having been painted over wood - and I found it distracting. It's difficult to describe the effect it had on me, but it was almost as if the characters were fading in and out. Tastes vary of course, and other readers seem to have really enjoyed these illustrations, so take that as you will. I myself have a back-and-forth relationship with Garland's art - this is my eighth picture-book from him - sometimes loving it and sometimes disliking it. In any case, despite not loving the visuals here, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to any picture-book readers looking for stories about Saint Patrick. It could be paired very nicely with the dePaola, or with a telling of one of the famous legends about the saint, such as Sheila MacGill-Callahan's The Last Snake in Ireland: A Story about St. Patrick.
Show Less